Poetry
In Flanders Fields
John McCrae · 1915
Opening lines
In Flanders fields the poppies grow
Between the crosses, row on row
Text quoted from gutenberg.org
Synopsis
Fifteen lines in the form of a rondeau, in three stanzas. The dead speak. They say that between the rows of crosses, in the fields of Flanders, the poppies grow; that the larks still sing, scarcely heard amid the guns; and that they themselves, only a few days ago, were alive, felt the dawn, saw the sunset, loved and were loved. Then they address the living, and what they ask of them made the poem's fortune.
Context
Written at the aid post, between two arrivals of wounded men, after the funeral of a friend from the brigade, which the doctor conducted in the absence of the chaplain. The Spectator rejected the poem; Punch published it without the author's name on 8 December 1915, and credited it only in its year-end index, with the name misspelled. Legend has it that the author, dissatisfied, threw away the draft and that a comrade picked it up. The poem was collected in 1919 with an essay by Andrew Macphail; the French adaptation by Jean Pariseau, Au champ d'honneur, is the one used by Veterans Affairs Canada and Canada Post.
Who it is for
Fifteen lines in three stanzas of five, four and six lines, in simple language, which can be read in a minute.
Prizes and reception
The most popular war poem in the English language, and the origin of the poppy worn in remembrance of the dead.
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