In May 3th 1915, Canadian physician Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae composes his famous war poem “In Flanders Fields” after presiding over the funeral of a good friend who was killed at the Second Battle of Ypres. The poem, upon its publishing in December of that year, saw immediate popularity. “In Flanders Fields” not only grew to be the most iconic poem of the Great War, but one of the most iconic pieces of wartime literature in history. John McCrae did not survive the war, but died in January of 1918 from pneumonia.
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.