Lest we forget...

[mousme]

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.

Comments

[whiskeygirl8.livejournal.com]

I take it Flanders Fields is akin to our Arlington National Cemetery. I would like to go there some day.

[ai731.livejournal.com]

Flanders is the western part of Belgium where much of the First World War was fought, and many Canadian soldiers are buried. The poem was composed by a Canadian Army surgeon who was serving there. I've visited some of the Canadian Military cemeteries in Flanders, Belgium, and they are carefully tended to this day by the Belgian people.

[whiskeygirl8.livejournal.com]

Thank you for that. :)

[mousme.livejournal.com]

And, of course, now I see that ai731 has already answered. Oops. :P

[mousme.livejournal.com]

No, not exactly. Flanders is in western Belgium, and is where some of the bloodiest battles occured in World War I. Canadian troops were heavily concentrated there, and they had a huge mortality rate (something like 30% or more, I don't remember the exact statistics).

The poem was written by a Canadian army surgeon, Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, who served in Belgium during the war. The poppy serves now as a reminder to us of all who sacrificed their lives for Canada and for Canada's beliefs. I believe it was because of this poem, in fact.

I plan on visiting there someday. I hear that the Belgian people to this day carefully tend the cemetaries of all the fallen soldiers, even those with no names. The crosses of unkown soldiers bear the inscription "Known Unto God."

[toughlovemuse.livejournal.com]

It's not only in Belgium that the graves are carefully tended -- my Grandfather went back to the Netherlands for the anniversary of their liberation and found the same thing. I've been told that schoolchildren there are assigned a grave to tend so they never forget.

[mousme.livejournal.com]

Indeed, although I believe that that's in commemoration of World War II (not that it matters which war it was, really, just that people are remembering).

[toughlovemuse.livejournal.com]

Indeed. World War II for that one.

I'm surpised at the thread. I guess Flanders Fields isn't a universal phenomenon?

[mousme.livejournal.com]

I guess not. I thought for sure it was.