Sebastian, Florida
One of the world's most popular poems - due to its personal origins, its visual power, and its sentiments about war and death, is "In Flanders Fields."
According to sources, the author was an officer in the Canadian military and wrote the poem the day after witnessing the death of his friend. Canadian physician and Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae wrote "In Flanders Fields" on May 3rd, 1915 while still in the trenches, using the back of a fellow soldier as a desk as he memorialized his feelings upon a scrap of paper. Th poem was published later that year.
Here is the original text (and printed text) of that incredible poem:
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
- John McCrae
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