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.
