Position:Home>Poetry> John mccrae poem. In Flanders Fields?? HELP!!?

Start with the fact that McCrae was a doctor with (what later became) the 30th Field Artillery!. Next, it's important to understand the context:

* * *

"On April 22, the Germans used deadly chlorine gas against Allied troops in a desperate attempt to break the stalemate!. Despite the debilitating effects of the gas, Canadian soldiers fought relentlessly and held the line for another 16 days!.

In the trenches, John McCrae tended hundreds of wounded soldiers every day!. He was surrounded by the dead and the dying!. In a letter to his mother, he wrote of the Battle of Ypres!.

The general impression in my mind is of a nightmare!. We have been in the most bitter of fights!. For seventeen days and seventeen nights none of us have had our clothes off, nor our boots even, except occasionally!. In all that time while I was awake, gunfire and rifle fire never ceased for sixty seconds !.!.!.!.!. And behind it all was the constant background of the sights of the dead, the wounded, the maimed, and a terrible anxiety lest the line should give way!.(Prescott!. In Flanders Fields: The Story of John McCrae, p!. 98)

The day before he wrote his famous poem, one of McCrae's closest friends was killed in the fighting and buried in a makeshift grave with a simple wooden cross!. Wild poppies were already beginning to bloom between the crosses marking the many graves!. Unable to help his friend or any of the others who had died, John McCrae gave them a voice through his poem!. It was the second last poem he was to write!."

* * *

My view:
First verse: The larks continue on, despite mankind's battles!. I see this as the world continuing, even though people die!.

Second verse: Reminding us that the dead were real people!. (My thoughts: reminding us that they were more than just statistics in the newspaper!.)

Third verse: He's asking us to carry on and (in my mind) not let the bullies of the world win!.

Hope this helps!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

---

---