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.
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.
"In Flanders Fields" is a rondeau written by the Canadian poet, soldier, and physician John McCrae. McCrae wrote the poem in 1915 as a memorial to those who died in a World War I battle fought in a region of Belgium known as the Ypres Salient. McCrae himself treated many of the soldiers injured in that battle and was particularly moved by the death of a close friend, Alexis Helmer. The poem describes the tragedy of the soldiers' deaths, as well as the ongoing natural beauty that surrounds their graves. It also addresses the question of the next generation's responsibility to carry on the soldiers' battle.
Summary
The speaker describes the poppies (beautiful red flowers) that grow in a place called Flanders fields. Along with the poppies, there are rows of crosses marking graves throughout the fields. The speaker also notes that larks (a particular kind of bird) fly high above the fields, singing their songs. However, the birds' songs can barely be heard on the ground below, because the noise of guns—most likely from some kind of battle—is too loud.
The speaker then reveals that they are actually multiple speakers, a group of people who are all dead and presumably died in this location. Until recently, the speakers were alive, experiencing the beauties of sunrise and sunset, as well as loving relationships with other people. Now, the speakers are dead and buried in Flanders fields.
The speakers go on to ask the reader to continue their fight. They liken their struggle to a torch that they are now passing off to the people who are still alive, because they themselves cannot hold it anymore. They ask that the reader take this responsibility seriously. The speakers conclude by saying that if the reader betrays the speakers by not continuing their fight, the speakers will never be peaceful in death, even though the field where they lie is covered in beautiful flowers.
Themes
Life, Death, and Nature
In the poem “In Flanders Fields,” the speakers describe the site of a recent World War I battle, emphasizing both the spot’s natural beauty and the devastation of the lives that were lost there. By bringing together two seemingly opposite interpretations of the same place, the speakers illustrate how life and death are always in balance with each other, even in tragic situations. Additionally, the speakers suggest that the steady cycles of the natural world reflect this balance and provide a way for humans to come to terms with tragedy and death.
Death is a vividly present force throughout the poem. The speaker immediately describes the fields of Flanders, Belgium, as covered in crosses marking the graves of soldiers buried there, an image which emphasizes how deeply death has marked this spot. At the end of the first stanza, the mention of “the guns below” takes this initial impression further, indicating that the deadly conflict taking place in the fields is ongoing. The second stanza reveals that the speaker is in fact “the Dead”; that is, the speaker (using the first-person plural voice of “we”) is actually a group of speakers, all of whom died in this same place. Furthermore, the second stanza makes it clear that these deaths were untimely and tragic. The phrase “short days ago” emphasizes how recently these deaths occurred, while the warm imagery of “dawn,” “sunset,” and “love” underscores just how much the speakers lost when they died. This sense of death without peace continues throughout the poem’s final stanza, with restless imagery such as “failing hands” and dead that “shall not sleep.”
However, the speakers balance these impressions of tragedy with ones of beauty and calm by making frequent reference to the stable cycles of nature. Even in the first line, “the poppies” are the dominant image, intermingling with “the crosses” in the second line and creating a sense that something beautiful and alive has grown from the deaths described. Poppies have been used as a symbol of rest and death since antiquity, so the choice of these flowers in particular highlights the close link between life and death; they are vividly alive even as their presence hints at death. “The larks” and their “singing” also suggest that nature has a powerful life force that extends far beyond the tragedy of the battlefield; note that the larks are in “the sky,” up high enough that their song is “scarce heard amid the guns below.” The second stanza also underscores that the balance of the natural world continues even in the face of human atrocity. The speakers’ references to “dawn” and “sunset” remind the reader that even though “the Dead” can no longer experience these wonders, the sun still continues to rise and set in an endless cycle. Even in the face of the restlessness of the dead who “shall not sleep,” the poppies still grow in the second-to-last line, an image that echoes the first line and emphasizes how beautiful natural forces such as the growth of flowers will always persist, even (and perhaps especially) in the face of death.
While the speakers in no way deny the power of death—after all, they are themselves “the Dead”—they ultimately make the point that death is only one necessary part of a larger system that is inherently balanced. Death may not be peaceful, but it is nonetheless natural, and the speakers suggest that by noticing the never-ending cycles of the natural world, readers can learn to appreciate the deep beauty and ongoing life that coexist even with tragic death.
War and Responsibility
“In Flanders Fields” is written in the voice of a group of soldiers who have recently died in a World War I battle. By speaking as a group and asking the reader to join in their struggle, these speakers suggest that war is a shared responsibility that affects everyone. Many critics read this poem as a straightforward romanticization of war, group effort, and soldiers’ sacrifice, but at the same time, it also indicates that war is a destructive phenomenon that interrupts the natural order of things. Ultimately, the speakers do not resolve the question of what, exactly, their struggle is; readers are left to decide whether the speakers are asking them to join the war or work to stop it.
The speakers—who collectively call themselves “the Dead”—begin by describing their circumstances to the reader. The second stanza in particular contains vivid descriptions of what the speakers have sacrificed in the name of war, noting in lines 7 and 8 that they have given up even such essential things as sunrises and love. By bringing the reader into their personal experience in this way, the speakers create a sense that war is communal, and that everyone in a society at war shares the soldiers’ fate in some sense. The final stanza makes this point explicit, as the speakers ask the reader to “take up [their] quarrel with the foe” and state that they “shall not sleep” if the reader doesn’t carry on the fight that they began. Again, it seems crucially important to the speakers that the battle be waged by everyone, not just soldiers.
However, the speakers also depict war as horrific and senseless, even as they emphasize that everyone must share its burdens. In the first stanza, they make it clear that war overshadows everything, noting that even as birds continue to sing (“larks still bravely singing”), the noise of “the guns below” makes it hard for humans to access such beauty. The loss described in the second stanza can also be interpreted as a condemnation of war’s senseless losses. While the experiences that the speakers have lost may glorify their sacrifice, they also demonstrate how war rips humans away from the natural cycles of “dawn” and “sunset,” implying that war exists essentially outside nature, as a kind of abomination. Even the poem’s meter breaks down at the words “In Flanders Fields” in lines 9 and 15, departing from the steady iambic tetrameter of the other lines. It seems, then, that the speakers may actually see this battlefield as the site of a breakdown in the world’s natural order.
In light of this second interpretation, the speakers’ request in the final stanza seems very different. If the speakers are actually trying to convince readers that war is an atrocity, then the responsibility symbolized by “the torch” might be more complicated than simply continuing to fight the same battles. Perhaps the metaphorical "torch” is actually the speakers’ attempt to shed some light on the horrors of war, and perhaps opposing “the foe" means putting a stop to tragic losses like the ones the speakers suffered. The speakers leave this question open; it’s ultimately uncertain whether they want the reader to fight for the war or against it. But the one thing they do make clear is that the reader has a responsibility to decide. The call to “hold [the torch] high” demands that readers recognize their own complicity and responsibility in war, no matter which interpretation of the speakers’ “quarrel" they choose.
존 매크레이
플랜더스 들판에 양귀비꽃 피었네,
우리 누운 곳 알리며,
줄지어 선 십자가들 사이에.
하늘에는 종달새 날며 힘차게 노래하지만,
지상의 총소리에 묻혀 거의 들리지 않네.
우리는 이제 죽어 지상에 없네. 며칠 전만 해도
살아서, 새벽을 느끼고, 빛나는 황혼을 보았으며,
사랑하고 사랑을 받았으나, 지금 우리는
플랜더스 들판에 누워 있네.
적과의 전투를 떠맡아 계속 싸우라
더 이상 지탱할 수 없는 우리 손의 횃불을
넘길 테니, 이를 높이 올리고 나아가라.
전사한 우리와의 신의를 그대들이 저버린다면
우리는 잠들지 못하리라, 비록 플랜더스 들판에
양귀비꽃 필지라도.
1915년 제1차 세계대전 중 발표된 이 시는 전쟁을 배경으로 한 시 중에서 가장잘 알려진 시
캐나다군 군의관으로 복무하던 존 매크레이 (John McCrae, 1872-1918) 중령이 전사한 친구를 위해 썼다.
전쟁 후 그의 시에 감동한 미국의 모이나 마이클(Moina Michael) 교수가 "우리는 신의를 지키리" (We shall keep the faith)라는 답시를 쓰고, 전몰자를 추모하여 양귀비꽃을 가슴에 달자고 제안하였다.
현재 영국, 프랑스, 캐나다, 영연방 국가들이 제1차 대전 종전일인 11월 11일을 현충일(Remembrance Day)로 기념하며, 이 시를 낭독하거나 노래와 음악을 연주하고 있다.
매크레이 중령은 당시 이 시를 쓴 후 마음에 들지 않아, 시를 적은 종이를 버렸는다. 이를 읽은 다른 장교가 출판할 것을 권유했다고 한다.
이 시는 발표 후 1차 대전 때 종군한 군인의 희생을 상징하게 되면서 엄청난 호응을 얻었고, 각국 언어로 번역되면서 세계적으로 유명하게 되었다.
전쟁 중 영국과 미국은 모병과 전쟁 기금 모금 캠페인에 이 시를 활용하였으며, 정치적 선거에 적극 활용되었다.
수많은 음악 곡이 이 시를 소재로 만들어졌다. 1차 대전 중과 전쟁 직후에 세계에서 가장 잘 알려진 시라고 할 수 있다.