ValleyOfHeroes

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.

ANALYSIS

Alliteration

• In Flanders fields, the poppies blow
• We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow

Symbolism

• Poppies–  symbolize death and hint that life and death are inseparable.

Imagery

• Sense of sight - “In Flanders fields, the poppies blow”, “sunset glow” and “Between the crosses, row on row.”

Personification

• “The larks, still bravely singing, fly”, as if the larks are humans that can sing.

Metaphor

• “We are the Dead.” The poet is comparing older soldiers to the dead and referring them as already dead.

Rondeau

• This poem is written in the format of French rondeau.

 

INTERPRETATION

The poem is describing about the horrific death that was face by the soldiers in the battle of the Fields of Flanders, Belgium, 

and trying to convey to the readers about the desires of the fallen soldiers

to make sure the effect of empathy exist between the readers and the dead soldiers in the poem.

 

INSPIRATION 

"In Flanders Fields" is a rondeau written by John McCrae in 1915

as a memorial to those who died in a World War I battle

fought in a region of Belgium known as the Ypres Salient.

 

The day before he wrote his famous poem, one of McCrae's closest friends, Alexis Helmer

was defeated in the war and buried in a makeshift grave with a simple wooden cross.

 

He was super moved by the death of Alexis Helmer. Unable to help his friend or any of the others who had died,

John McCrae gave them a voice through his poem.

POET BIODATA

Name: Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae

Born: 30 November 1872 in Guelph, Ontario, Canada

Died: 28 January 1918 in Boulogne-Sur-Mer, France

Occupation (s): Poet, Physician, Author, Lieutenant Colonel of the Canadian Expeditionary Force

 

Life events: 

• Was a son to Lieutenant-Colonel David McCrae and Janet Simpson Eckford; His grandfather is Scottish immigrants.
• Attended the Guelph Collegiate Vocational Institute but took a year off because of Asthma.
• Was a resident master in English and Mathematics in 1894 at the Ontario Agricultural College in Guelph.
• Served in South Africa as a lieutenant in the Canadian Field Artillery during the Second Boer War in 1900.
• Joined the World War 1 in 1914 as Medical Officer and Major of the 1st Brigade Canadian Field Artillery.
• Died on 28 January 1918 while fighting Pneumonia.

(Trenches and No Man's Land at Flanders Fields, Ypres Salient)

An autographed copy of the poem from In Flanders Fields and Other Poems.