" In the Flanders field" was written in 1915 by Lt. Col John McCrae,M.D. a Canadian who served as a surgeon in the Great War.He wrote it after witnessing the death of a friend at Ypres,Belgium.McCrae died in France in 1918,at the age of 46,from pneumonia,an all-to-common battlefield ailment.
" In the Flanders Fields"
In the Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses,now 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 the 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.
Inspired by McCrae's poem,an American women,Moina Michael,wore poppies to honor the war dead. She also began selling poppies to raise money for the disabled veterans of the Great War.This idea spread to France and England and then to Canada and the United States.