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Home My WebLink AboutHuron Expositor, 2016-09-21, Page 5In Flanders Fields' It is strange in a coun- try of peacekeepers that its greatest single contribution to world lit- erature is a war poem urging the living to carry on the fight. Over 100 years after it was written, the imagery of John McCrae's 'In Flanders Fields' remains clear, pure, unsullied, beautiful and boldly patriotic. It is a national treasure, a part of our heritage and the foundation of our all too sparse civil religion. Tucked away on page 468 in a bottom corner of the December 8, 1915 issue of 'Punch, or the London Charivari' maga- zine, 'In Flanders Fields' made its first appearance in print. A satirical jour- nal geared for the sophis- ticated English middle class, `Punch' was an odd place for the most reso- nant of all war poems to debut. Yet, within days, the magazine was swamped with thousands of requests for copies and reprints. The sixteen line poem immediately struck a profound emotional chord with an anxious war worried audience. It was not until the Decem- ber 29th, 1915 issue that the author was incor- rectly identified as Lieu- tenant-Colonel John `McCree. By war's end, it was easily the most rec- ognized literary monu- ment of the Great War. It was all the more incredi- ble because it was almost not published at all. In May 1915, 42 year old Major John McCrae of Guelph was a surgeon with the Royal Canadian Field Artillery. He oper- ated under shellfire at Essex Farm Bunker, an aid station which military historian, Tim Cook, in 'In Flanders Fields: 100 Years' described as noth- ing more than a 'muddy cave reinforced with wood and buttressed by a small sand bag wall.' His operating room consisted Huron History David Yates of a crude wooden table with straw placed on the floor to soak up the blood and gore. On the morning of May 2, McCrae learned that a young friend, Lieutenant Alexis Helmer, age 22, whom he had known in the pre-war militia, had been killed by a high explosive shell which 'dis- membered' his body. Already physically and emotionally exhausted after 10 days of surgery under gruelling condi- tions, McCrae personally conducted Helmer's funeral service over his young friend. Although a devout Presbyterian, McCrae recited from memory the Anglican `Burial for the Dead' and was deeply moved when a picture of Helmer's fiance was placed on top of his bagged and bloody remains It seems McCrae wrote `In Flanders Fields' some- time on May 2-3, 1915. One version of the poem's origin is that McCrae wrote it in 20 minutes immediately after Helm- er's funeral. The most widely known version of the origins of `In Flanders Fields' comes from 22 year old Sergeant Major Cyril Allinson who claimed to have seen McCrae sitting in the back of an ambulance on May 3 scribbling in a notepad. Allinson said he watched McCrae's eyes moving between his notepad and the rows of crosses in the cemetery where Helmer was bur- ied. McCrae then crumpled up the paper and threw it on the ground where Allinson picked it up and read it. Allinson reportedly said that it was 'almost an exact description of the scene in front of us both.' He returned it McCrae and advised him to pub- lish it. If true, Sgt. -Maj. Allinson was the first to read it and understand its significance. Whatever the case, McCrae submitted it to at least one other English journal which rejected it before 'Punch' finally published it. When the author's identity became known, McCrae received letters of gratitude from the friends and relatives of those who lay in Flan- ders Fields. Reprinted and pub- lished in several lan- guages, the poem became the anthem of remem- brance for the next cen- tury. Much of the poem's power is lies in its imagery. Blood red pop- pies blowing between rows of white crosses evoked the higher Chris- tian ideals of sacrifice and suffering. The poppy's narcotic qualities made it a traditional symbol of deep painless sleep. The pastoral image of larks 'bravely singing' lift the mind's eye upward before the firing of 'the guns below' remind us that the battle rages on. Written from the per- spective of the freshly dead who can do no more; McCrae's 'In Flan- ders Fields' is a call from beyond the grave. To 'break faith' with the dead, would be to betray their sacrifice. `To forget was to drop the torch and to fail the men and women who had given their lives.' according to Jonathan Vance in `Death So Noble.' They will not rest 'though poppies grow in Flanders Fields.' For the bereaved, abandon- ing the memory of their dead and their cause was a worse sin than the war itself. Over time, some have tried to soften, or even eliminate, the third verse's controversial call to battle. Yet, without it, the poem loses its courage. McCrae was not a pacifist. `In Flanders Fields' is not an anti -war poem. The audi- ence that he wrote it for fully grasped that mean- ing. (One of my grand- mother's friends who was too young to remember an older brother killed in the Great War recalled that her mother could never get through reading `In Flanders Fields' with- out tearing up because she could only hear her lost son's voice). Few liter- aryworks have reached as deeply as 'In Flanders Fields: McCrae was unable to enjoy his literary fame. His sense of duty kept him with a Canadian Military Hospital where weakened by overwork, he con- tracted pneumonia and died on January 28th, 1918. His death made his poem all the more poign- ant as he joined the ranks of the many tens of thou- sands of Canadians who lie in Flanders Fields. The poppy of McCrae's `In Flanders Fields' has become the British Com- monwealth's Remem- brance Day symbol. Iron- ically, it was an American, Moina Michael, who is credited with the idea of wearing a red poppy to remember the War Dead. In 1921, the Great War Veterans' Association of Canada adopted the red poppy as did the British Legion and the other Dominions. A century later, Remembrance Day, the only sacred event in Canada's national calen- dar, is unimaginable without the Fields Fields poppy. It is firmly embed- ded in our national psy- che as the emblem of remembrance. Wednesday, September 21, 2016 • Huron Expositor 5 EN I ; I7.atacter i liedthe 1.irrippie.,-4 1110 Between tile. crosses, Tow mt r[... That. 11hii-] 1:1111 !NCO ; akii l i11 11 The liwks, still kirave1v singing, 8.eauno iiit$a<>` 1 mid the gin li::li , • aro the Dna. Short days it o We. J ixe,d, fe)t dawn, aro sunset 1i , Loved and wee'mid now tib- 1i 1ioh1. Take up 01117 [li-1art'el the ft>C: T• O 2(01_1.�t'i i' 1 f u,ili11g ]'I�L14t1 'ori tI'11'wAr l The t.r;:trt°.I 1 ; ] ar ` your to 11014 it L HgE if ye i)1'( tk f Lith with HEI. who. . die \ YO ,had] not slem, though Poppies gra (.n F ia)ti 1orE 1 'A cry from the heart' is how historian, Tim Cook, described John McCrae's 'In Flanders Fields' which 'emerged during the wreckage of war. Yet, Cook believes, 'its powerful words transcend the Great War' and `shines a light on what motivated more than 620,00 Canadians who ea orthhuronex.ositor.co served and sacrificed and those who continue to do so for the causes they believe in.' Colonel John McCrae's `In Flanders Fields' will always be rele- vant as long as Canadians `do not break faith' with the ideals of those who made the ultimate Sacrifice. HAVE AN OPINION? The Huron Expositor welcomes letters to the editor. They must be signed and accompanied by a phone number for information clarification. It is important to note, letters will not be printed without the author's name attached. All letters are subject to editing due to possible space restriction. Letters can be dropped off at the office, mailed or emailed: The Huron Expositor 8 Main St. P.O. Box 69 Seaforth, ON NOK 1WO Shaun.Gregory@sunmedia.ca www.seaforthhuronexpositor. co m