In high school, we always had a moving Remembrance Day celebration, as during WWII one of the teachers from Danforth Tech had corresponded with many former students who went off to serve. Reading the correspondence from the front, from hospitals and from family members helped us understand more about the world they lived in and died for... Another important part of Remembrance Day was always the reading of In Flanders Fields by Lt. Col. John McCrae, who was from Guelph, Ontario, not far from where I grew up... although I think his poem is now one of the most recognized of WWI:
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.
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!
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
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
My thanks to the Veterans, current soldiers and those who have made the ultimate sacrifice for freedom!
