In Flanders Field

In Flanders’ Fields the poppies

Between the crosses, row on row,

That mark our place; and in the

The larks, still bravely singing,

Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead.

Short days

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

Loved, and were loved, and now we

In Flanders’ Fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:

To you from failing hands we

The torch; be yours to hold it high.

If ye break faith with us who

We shall not sleep, though poppies

In Flanders’

One of the most asked questions is: why poppies?

The answer is simple: poppies only flower in up-rooted soil. Their seeds can lie on the ground for years and years, and only when someone roots up the ground, they will sprout. There was enough rooted up soil on the battlefield of the Western Front; in fact the whole front consisted of churned up soil. So in May 1915, when

Crae wrote his poem, around him poppies blossomed like no one had ever seen before.

A Poem written in reply to John

Crae by Miss Moira Micheal (1915)"We shall Keep the Faith"Oh!

You who sleep in Flanders’ fields,

Sleep sweet – to rise anew;

We caught the torch you threw;

And holding high we

The faith with those who died.

We cherish, too, the Poppy

That grows on fields where valour led.

It seems to signal to the

That blood of heroes never dies,

But lends a lustre to the

Of the flower that blooms above the

In Flanders’ Fields.

And now the torch and poppy

Wear in honour of our

Fear not that ye have died for

We’ve learned the lesson that ye

In Flanders’ Fields