In Flanders Fields

By: Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918)

Canadian Army

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.

1. What is Flanders Fields?

2. What evidence is there that this is a soldier’s cemetery?
3. Who is the narrator?
4. What is meant by “We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow”?
5. In the poem the dead can be represented by the poppies, what represents the
living?
6. What does the narrator want the reader to do? Why?
7. Given the fact that World War I was so horrific why would the dead want the
living to continue?
8. What is the connection between, “We shall not sleep, though poppies grow…?
9. What is the overall tone or mood of the poem?