In Flanders' Fields

We just got back from a Remembrance Day assembly at the local elementary school. Kate's class recited a poem about poppies, a common emblem from the poem In Flanders' Fields. Canadian physician and Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae is popularly believed to have written it on May 3, 1915, after he witnessed the death of his friend, Lieutenant Alexis Helmer, 22 years old, the day before. One of the older grades recited this poem for us. Here is the poem:

IN FLANDERS' FIELDS

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.