Today, people still pay tribute to John by visiting McCrae House, the limestone cottage in Guelph Ontario, where he was born. The house has been preserved as a museum. Beside it are a memorial cenotaph and a garden of remembrance.
John McCrae left to us a legacy – a gift of Remembrance. Take a moment now to remember a veteran. Reflect on where we would be had it not been for men like John and thousands of others who paid the ultimate sacrifice to ensure our freedom.
LEST WE FORGET!!!
Author’s Note:
THE MAKING OF “IN FLANDERS FIELDS.”
Poppies bloomed by the thousands in Flanders field. Why? Because poppy seeds can lie on the ground for years. They will only sprout when the ground is uprooted. On the battlefield of the Western Front, the soil had been churned up. Thus, the poppy seeds were germinated. In 1915, when John McCrae wrote his famous poem, poppies were blooming as thick as grass.
In Flanders Fields is the best known poem of the First World War. Often, only the first two verses are printed. This is not just because of the lack of quality in the third verse, but because the last verse speaks of an unending quarrel with the foe. If one thing became clear during the Great War, it was this: there was no quarrel between the soldiers. The quarrel existed in the minds of politicians and high-ranking officers who almost never engaged in battle, or experienced the horrors of the battlefield.
Although John had been a physician and had served in the South African War, it was impossible for him to get used to the suffering, the screams and the blood. John had seen and heard enough in his dressing station to last him a lifetime.
Before he died, John knew that his poem “In Flanders Field” had been a great success. It was then, and remains to this day, the most popular poem of the First World War. It has been translated into many different languages and was used on billboards advertising the sale of Victory War Bonds in Canada in 1917. Designed to raise $150,000,000, the campaign far exceeded its goal. $400,000,000 was raised.
Today, the symbolic poppy and John’s poem are still linked. The voices of those who died in the war can be heard each Remembrance Day in Canada and the Festival of Remembrance in the United States, both which are celebrated November 11.
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