In Flaners Field

In Flanders Fields
Lt.Col. John McRae
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That marks 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

My comments: There are endless tales about the war, and some of them had made it through times into textbooks, chronicles, and our heart. In Flanders fields is one of them. Not just the beauty of the poem, its background story was one of the finest illustrations about World War I. Liutenant Colonel John McRae, having known the war like the back of his palm, was terribly shaken by the dead of his friend and disciple, Lt. Alexis Helmer to the point that he replaced the chaplain to perform Alexis’ funeral. Short times after McRae produced this poem, but if not for another officer who stumbled upon this poem (McRae’s personal opinion of his work was ‘rubbish’, that it couldn’t depict the actual situations of the war), it wouldn’t make it to this day. Not so many soldiers, especially those who ranked high as McRae have heart soft enough for poetry. He was one of the jewels we had back in the war. In Flanders fields touch me a lot. The second stanza in particular, show us that the soldiers were the same human as us today, save for the fact they have less options for their actions.