Gabriel Cortina

In Flanders Fields by John Mccrae
"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."                                                

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47380/in-flanders-fields

The image is of a Poppy flower, which are a symbol of remembrance for the dead soldiers taken by the First World War. The flowers were given such recognition because of the poem In Flanders Fields for the fact that they grow in the European countryside where the most infamous fighting of World War 1 occurred.

The Canadian poet John Mccrae went to the University of Toronto where he earned his undergraduate and medical degrees and worked in multiple hospitals in the 1890s. In 1899 he joined the First Canadian Contingent to fight in the Boer War until 1900; he was promoted to the rank of major in 1904 and rejoined the First Canadian Contingent to fight in World War 1 where he wrote such poems as In Flanders Fields and The Pilgrims. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/john-mccrae

The poem is being said by the dead soldiers left on the battlefield of Flanders, Belgium after the Battle of Ypres; they are stating how they will fade away if they are forgotten by the living. They also state how the poppy flowers grow on their resting places, the only aftermath of the bloodshed. They soldiers say that they "shall not sleep" if we, the living, "break faith" with them; they are saying that if we forget about them then they will fade away and never truly be put to rest. They also "throw The torch" of fighting to the living, over multiple generations, fronts, and wars. The dead are now represented by the Poppy flowers that grow on their resting places: they "lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow," but now "lie In Flanders fields."; they are all that remain of the battle. The dead of the aftermath are all that remain on the battlefield of Flanders, and the Poppy flowers accompany them. The fact that the poem rhymes is reflecting how the dead are unified in the one fact that they are dead; the poem is unified in its rhyme, and the soldiers are unified in their death. The poem does not state what country's dead are reciting it, so it can be assumed that it is all of the soldiers of all of the countries; they were pitted against each other prior to their death but are all together following the battle. The poem has a somber and tragic tone, and is reflected in its describing words. Most of the significant adjectives portray the soldiers as they are dying: "failing hands", "break faith with us who die"; the soldiers are being drained of life, just as each stanza dies down with "In Flanders fields.". The first stanza sees different toned words, ones that carry a more tragic overall feeling; the larks are "bravely singing", but their beauty is not noticed or heard because of the guns of the battle. The theme is this: We must not forget the dead, for if we do, we may just become like them and we will be forgotten as well.