Poppies

In May 1915 Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae of the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps was working in a dressing station on the front line to the north of Ieper, Belgium, when he wrote In Flanders Fields:

In Flanders fields the poppies blowBetween the crosses,

row on rowThat mark our place;

a nd in the skyThe larks, still bravely singing,

flyScarce 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 lieIn Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe;

To you, from failing hands,

we throwThe torch;

be yours to hold it high.

If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep,

though poppies growIn Flanders fields.