In Flanders Fields The Poppies Grow

by PainterArtist FIN

Title

In Flanders Fields The Poppies Grow

Artist

PainterArtist FIN

Medium

Painting - Mixed Media

Description

IN FLANDERS FIELDS POEM
The World’s Most Famous WAR MEMORIAL POEM
By Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae

Lieutenant Colonel John McCraeIn 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

Composed at the battlefront on May 3, 1915
during the second battle of Ypres, Belgium

On May 2, 1915, John McCrae’s close friend and former student Alexis Helmer was killed by a German shell. That evening, in the absence

of a Chaplain, John McCrae recited from memory a few passages from the Church of England’s “Order of the Burial of the Dead”. For

security reasons Helmer’s burial in Essex Farm Cemetery was performed in complete darkness.

The next day, May 3, 1915, Sergeant-Major Cyril Allinson was delivering mail. McCrae was sitting at the back of an ambulance parked

near the dressing station beside the YserCanal, just a few hundred yards north of Ypres, Belgium.

In Flanders Fields Poem
As John McCrae was writing his In Flanders Fields poem, Allinson silently watched and later recalled, “His face was very tired but calm as

he wrote. He looked around from time to time, his eyes straying to Helmer's grave."

Within moments, John McCrae had completed the “In Flanders Fields” poem and when he was done, without a word, McCrae took his

mail and handed the poem to Allinson.

Allinson was deeply moved:

“The (Flanders Fields) poem was an exact description of the scene in front of us both. He used the word blow in that line because the

poppies actually were being blown that morning by a gentle east wind. It never occurred to me at that time that it would ever be

published. It seemed to me just an exact description of the scene."

Painting "IN FLANDERS FIELDS THE POPPIES GROW" by PainterArtistFIN at wholisticartsschool.com
Painterartistfin grew up in Flanders Belgium and has lived in the united states for many years.

All paintings are originals by the artist and as such are Protected by US and International Copyright laws, all rights reserved.

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November 9th, 2013

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