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How red poppies became a symbol of remembrance and hope
Read the famous poem that honors those who fell in Flanders in World War I
In this photo taken on Saturday, May 3, 2014, wooden remembrance crosses with poppies are placed in front of the headstone of 15-year old World War I soldier Valentine Strudwick at Essex Farm Commonwealth Cemetery in Ypres, Belgium. The cemetery, previously an advanced dressing station during WWI, is the location where Canadian soldier John McCrae penned his famous poem In Flanders Fields. McCrae, a doctor who had been treating wounded men in the field, saw that the resilient red corn poppy was the first plant to flourish in the churned-up landscape. The poem, penned shortly after McCrae buried a friend, soon became one of the most well-known wartime verses and sowed the seeds of the poppy's symbolism in the English-speaking world. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
After the Second Battle of Ypres, when poison gas floated down into the trenches of World War I for the first time, a Canadian soldier saw something surprisingly hopeful.
In the rolling fields nearby, red poppy flowers were blooming.
According to The History Channel, Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae tended to the wounded after the battle, in which 87,000 Allied soldiers died. As a brigade surgeon, McCrae saw the horrors of war up close. He even lost a close friend in the battle at Ypres, located in the Flanders region of Belgium.
In the midst of all that horror and sadness, though, McCrae noticed bright red flowers popping out of the same ground where so many men had died. The blooms inspired him to write “In Flanders Fields,” a poem honoring the men who died on the same fields now covered in poppies.
According to Good Housekeeping, the poem inspired a Georgia professor to wear a red poppy every day to remember the soldiers who died in Flanders. Professor Moina Michael eventually helped make the red poppy the U.S.’ national symbol of remembrance.
Many people still wear red poppies on Memorial Day, or on National Poppy Day, which was on Friday.
‘In Flanders Fields’ by John McCrae
Gravestones of soldiers who fought in World War I stand in Tyne Cot Cemetery in the Flanders region of Belgium in March 2014. (Molly Duffy/For The Gazette)
Gravestones of soldiers who fought in World War I stand in Tyne Cot Cemetery in the Flanders region of Belgium in March 2014. (Molly Duffy/For The Gazette)
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.
