Veterans Day is an official United States public holiday, observed annually on November 11, that honors military veterans; that is, persons who served in the United States Armed Forces. I’m taking this opportunity to share one of my favorite poems, which relates to a conflict known widely at the time as “The Great War.”
The military of many nations fought in that great conflict, among them, the Canadians.
John McCrae, a Canadian doctor and teacher who is best known for his memorial poem “In Flanders Fields,” was born on November 30, 1872, in Guelph, Ontario.
In Flanders Fields
by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae
Canadian Field Artillery
Composed on May 3, 1915, during the Second Battle of Ypres, Ypres, Belgium (an area known as Flanders)
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.
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