All Nationalites - In Flanders Fields

Celebrating what makes us unique and what brings us together

by Meg Farrell Sine and Jennifer Williams

In 1915, Canadian army surgeon John McCrae wrote "In Flanders Fields" after the death of a close friend. McCrae himself did not survive the war.

“In Flanders Fields wasn't intended as a poem of remembrance...It is a poem to keep fighting and that I think is often lost on people," says Tim Cook, the First World War historian at the Canadian War Museum to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

"In Flanders Fields" was published 106 years ago and over time its meaning has evolved. "I think that's the power of the poem," says Cook. "The torch is no longer being passed to keep up the fight. It is now a torch of remembrance. It is the dead who now command the living in the post-war years that they must remember the fallen. And I think that's interesting that the words don't change, the poem remains the same, but its meaning has changed and it continues to reverberate."

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

The 1918 armistice of WWI declared a ceasefire at 11AM on the 11th day of the 11th month. Today, many countries (especially in the Commonwealth and Europe) pause at 11AM on November 11th for a minute of silence.