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.
"In Flanders
Fields" by Canadian physician and Lieutenant Colonel, John McCrae, was written on May 3, 1915. The day before the poem's composition,
McCrae had presided over the funeral and burial of his friend, killed during the Second Battle of Ypres. McCrae was dissatisfied
with the poem and threw it away. It was retrieved and saved by fellow soldiers.
