In Flanders Fields

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.

Written by Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae, Canadian Army Medical Corps, who died in base hospital, 28th January 1918, aged 45, from pneumonia. He is buried in France. This poem was written in 1915 during the second battle of Ypres and appeared in Punch in December 1915. It quickly became one of the most famous poems of WW1.

Code: 62341