Poppy Necklace, Beauty and Significance
Ever wonder why veterans use poppy flowers for Military Remembrances?
World War 1 had a great human toll of approximately 8.5 million soldiers.
The Germans unleashed lethal chlorine gas for the first time during the Second Battle of Ypres.
A Canadian Soldier, Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, brigade surgeon tended to the wounded in that battle and was overwhelmed with the carnage of the fallen from the unleashing of the chlorine gas by the Germans.
The fallen soldiers were buried in a sea of red poppy flowers in Flanders Field. He wrote the poem, In Flanders Fields, in remembrance.
In Flanders Fields
John McCrae – 1872-1918
(Public Domain)
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.
Related:
Edgemont Crackers, Now Made by Elves!
Leave a Reply