" In Flanders Fields" is a war poem in the form of a rondeau, written during the First World War by Canadian physician Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae. ![]() McCrae died later in the war while serving in France and is buried at Wimereux Communal Cemetery, but his legacy lives on with the sale of poppies each year to raise money for armed forces veterans and their families.Inscription of the complete poem in a bronze book at the John McCrae memorial at his birthplace in Guelph, Ontario The poem itself is a remembrance of the dead, but a call to arms for the next wave of soldiers on the front lines: The distinctive red and black poppies were renowned for growing on the broken earth of the battlefields of France and Belgium, and McCrae speaks of them in the opening stanza of his most well known work: Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae was a Canadian medical officer serving on the Western Front during World War One.Ī keen poet and author, he wrote his most famous poem ‘In Flanders Fields’ in May 1915, after a close friend had died during the Second Battle of Ypres. Close to 1,500 sailors lost their lives, and the majority could not be recovered, with more than 1,200 commemorated on Chatham Naval Memorial. It is likely that the poem was written in response to the action of 22 September 1914, where three Royal Navy cruisers were sunk by U-9, a German submarine. Sea-children ! Still, by quiet copse and close, safe through your service, other children playĭear brothers are you now to all of those, for whom you died that day. The second of two stanzas is a short message of remembrance, exhorting the bravery of the men who served, with a reminder of why it was important that they made the ultimate sacrifice. Others bring much, but these had most to bring Īll hope, all dreams, life left an unrun race įor that has death, the just and gentle king, now set them first in place. His first stanza speaks of these youths, killed too soon: Aged 35 at the time, Young must have seen boys and young men signing up for service at sea when war was declared. ‘To the boys…’ was written in 1914, while Young was serving aboard the dreadnought HMS Duke, part of the Grand Fleet at Scapa Flow. ‘To the boys lost in our cruisers’ is a remembrance of the sailors of the Royal Navy, written by Edward Hilton Young, himself a commissioned officer serving in the Navy during World War One. To the boys lost in our cruisers, Edward Hilton Young 'We who Remain' accompanied a £5 commemorative coin released for Remembrance Day 2015. We are the ones who will never need to be reminded that "We will Remember Them"Īs We are the ones who will always remember those we forever call friend. The last lines of the poem evoke another of the famous remembrance poems, quoting directly from the Ode of Remembrance. ![]() In a manner reflective of Dulce et Decorum Est, the poem begins with the latin motto of the Duke of Wellington: ‘Virtutis fortuna comes’ (Fortune is the companion of virtue) as Devanny explains that there both “the lucky and unlucky ones” who have to live with the survivors guilt that comes with returning home from a war when others did not. While serving in The Yorkshire Regiment, and having just returned from a third tour of Afghanistan, Devanny wrote ‘We who remain’ in honour of the comrades he’d lost in service.ĭevanny’s writing shares some of the hallmarks of some of the most well known remembrance day poems. Not even with that wind blowing, and that tide.Īnd gave to that wind blowing and that tide! ![]() The poem answers that there is no comfort other than the knowledge that the son died doing his duty for his country: While the poem is ostensibly about the death of 16-year-old Jack Cornwell VC who died while serving aboard HMS Chester at the Battle of Jutland, Kipling’s own experiences with his son will have affected its writing, further magnified by the similarity of the names Jack and John.Īside from the last, each stanza of the poem opens with the question of a bereaved parent, firstly asking for news of their child, before searching for comfort to sooth the loss of their son. In 1916, shortly after the loss of his son, Kipling published ‘My boy Jack’. Initially he was listed as missing in action, and his grave was not identified until decades after Rudyard Kipling’s own death. Rudyard Kipling lost his only son John in September 1915 during the Battle of Loos.
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