THOUGH POPPIES GROW IN FLANDERS FIELDS

LEST WE FORGET - They shall not grow old...

REMEMBERING THE WAR DEAD EVERYWHERE

Lest we forget - They shall grow not old,

as we that are left grow old:

Age shall not weary them,

nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun

and in the morning,

we will remember them.

'LEST WE FORGET'

          Lest We Forget - three words renowned across most countries to show remembrance of those who have fought, and those who have died fighting for freedom. It means that we will never forget.

          In Canada, the day is honoured by wearing poppies, a flower that bloomed throughout the fields of battle grounds in France and Belgium during World War I.

          The wearing of the symbol of the poppy was made popular due to the poem, Flanders Fields, written by Canadian physician and Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae after witnessing his friend and fellow soldier struck down in the midst of battle in WWI.

In the poem by John McCrae 'In Flanders Fields' poppies are referred to, but why poppies?

The answer is simple:
Poppies only flower in rooted up soil. Their seeds can lie on the ground for years and years. They will sprout only when someone roots up the ground. Battlefields during the war, churned up the soil while dead soldiers laid on the ground and the poppies blossomed.

In Flanders Fields

(my favourite poem)

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.

Canadian Lieutenant Col. John Alexander McCrae was born in McCrae House in Guelph, Ontario to Lieutenant-Colonel David McCrae and Janet Simpson Eckford; he was the grandson of Scottish immigrants. He attended the Guelph Collegiate Vocational Institute and became a member of the Guelph militia regiment. The background of his family is military. Poet, physician, author, artist and soldier during World War I, and a surgeon during the battle of Ypres, a Municipality in Flanders, Belgium. He is best known for writing the above war memorial poem.