Remembrance Day and Poetry

Almost exactly one hundred years ago the belligerent German army reached the conclusion that WW1 had gone on too long, been too stagnant, and shed too much blood. On the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, both sides of the War signed an armistice to stop fighting. Soldiers from both sides clambered over their trenches and fortifications to greet those who they had to kill just days before.

The Earth has circled the sun one hundred years since, but we still choose to remember that fateful day. All around the globe, millions of people pay their respects to the millions of lives lost in war. Just like how the symbol for women's breast cancer is a pink ribbon, the item most associated with Remembrance Day (or Veterans Day as it is know here) is the poppy flower. It is interesting to see that this unanimous symbol was initiated by a poem known as In Flanders Fields. Written by a Canadian soldier who lost his life in the War, John McCrae, this poem is beautiful, somber, and has captured a readers imaginations for one hundred years now.

In Flanders Field - by John McCrae

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.

This is personally one of my favorite poems ever written (after Do not go gentle into that Goodnight - by Dylan Thomas) and understanding the background of the poem greatly enhances the reading. Inspired by a friends death during the War, McCrae wrote In Flanders Field and it was found and published by his friends in 1915. It seems to be both critical of the war and optimistic about its end, a view which by 1915 was not abnormal.

I know that in AP and regular english this year we have done a unit on poetry. I leave it as a challenge to the reader to analyze the poetic devices used and their significance and leave it in the comments.