In Flanders Fields

Every Canadian school boy and girl of my generation learned to recite this poem by Lt.-Col. John McCrae. Let's learn something about this poem and the man who wrote it.

This is a continuation of last week’s post, “We Don't Want or Need an Arms Race.”

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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.

—Lt. Col. John McCrae [1872–1918], “In Flanders Fields,” Punch, Dec 8, 1915

All Canadians know this poem, “In Flanders Fields,” by Lt.-Col. John McCrae, a doctor and teacher, and a veteran of the First World War. McCrae was also a casualty of the war. As were so many more. Millions of persons no longer existed. They were once living and young. Then they were dead and young. So quickly gone. This is what war does, does it not? Equally important, what applies to humans, applies to non-human animals¹ and to trees, plants, insects and marine life. War destroys everything in its path, everything it touches. There is no good side to war. At least I can’t see one.

Back to the poem. Every school boy and girl of my generation learned to memorize it and recite it, although we did not fully understand its meaning and why McCrae wrote it. That would take years of growing up and learning about wars that humans have been a part of for millennia. This poem is a reminder of the brutality and reality of war. In War, people die; if they survive, they are maimed, physically for some, mentally for others. No one escapes a war without some injury. There is always some trauma, or PTSD², as we call it today.

Here is some historical information on this poem, as written and described by Government of Canada’s Veterans Affairs site:

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.

Soon after it was written, he was transferred to No. 3 (McGill) Canadian General Hospital in France where he was Chief of Medical Services. The hospital was housed in huge tents at Dannes-Cammiers until cold wet weather forced a move to the site of the ruins of the Jesuit College at Boulogne.

When the hospital opened its doors in February 1916, it was a 1,560-bed facility covering 26 acres. Here the wounded were brought from the Battle of the Somme, the Battle of Vimy Ridge, the third Battle of Ypres and from Arras and Passchendaele.

As for McCrae, he was born in Guelph, Ontario, on November 30, 1872. He studied medicine at University of Toronto (graduating in 1898). He fought as a Canadian, a member of the British Empire, in the South Africa War (in 1900); and then after a year returned to Canada, to Montreal where he studied pathology at McGill University and was a pathologist at both the Montreal General Hospital and the Royal Victoria Hospital. Dr. McCrae also had a private practice and taught pathology at University of Vermont Medical College in Burlington and in clinical medicine and pathology at McGill.

Then another war was declared; Veterans Affairs writes about the First World War:

On August 4, 1914, Britain declared war on Germany. Canada, as a member of the British Empire, was automatically at war, and its citizens from all across the land responded quickly. Within three weeks, 45,000 Canadians had rushed to join up. John McCrae was among them. He was appointed a medical officer with the First Brigade of the Canadian Field Artillery with the rank of Major and second-in-command.

McCrae was 41 when he entered the First World War, not a young man. He was on the battlefield for more than three years, witnessing horror after horror. After suffering from pneumonia and meningitis for five days, McCrae died on January 28,1918 at Number 14 British General Hospital for Officers (Hotel Splendide) in Wimereux, France. John McCrae was 45. You can read the rest of this man’s storied life [here]. You will, I can assure you, find it was a life well-lived, albeit cut short by war.

I will end here with Leonard Cohen’s song, “You Want it Darker,” the title track of the same-named album, released on October 21, 2016. Cohen, the eminent poet’s poet was prescient, a sensitive soul. Not surprising for the Montreal native and for us Montrealers (Les Montréalais) who have been reading his poetry and listening to his music for decades. I remember hearing this song in November 2016, and it awoke in me a realization that a greater darkness has enveloped us.

Not a personal darkness of youthful angst or of being misunderstood, but a deep and prolonged societal one. One must find joy outside the envelope, outside the prison gates, chiefly in the realm of Nature, and among the people who have a desire for freedom. For living and for life.

Leonard Cohen died on November 7, 2016, less than two months after the song was released. The next day, Donald Trump was elected as president of the United States. It was a dark day, making the darkness already present even darker—a heavy darkness that covers like a thick blanket, not with comfort, however. It appears that darkness has not left the U.S. since the beginning of the millennium. There are reasons, since there are always reasons, but few want to get outside the blanket, kick off the covers. Or perhaps the blanket is too heavy, and they can’t.

Merci et à bientôt
Lifelong Animal Lover
Born at 315 ppm
Now at 428 ppm

1. Animals in War: International Review of the Red Cross: “Animals are the unknown victims of armed conflict. They are regularly looted, slaughtered, bombed or starved on a massive scale during such hostilities. Their preservation should become a matter of great concern. However, international humanitarian law (IHL) largely ignores this issue. It only indirectly, and often ambiguously, provides animals with the minimum protection afforded to civilian objects, the environment, and specially protected objects such as medical equipment, objects indispensable for the survival of civilian population or cultural property. This regime neither captures the essence of animals as sentient beings experiencing pain, suffering and distress, nor takes into account their particular needs during wartime.”

2. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD): Veterans Affairs Canada: “PTSD is a psychological response to the experience of intense traumatic events, particularly those that threaten life. It can affect people of any age, culture or gender. Although we have started to hear a lot more about it in recent years, the condition has been known to exist at least since the times of ancient Greece and has been called by many different names. In the American Civil War, it was referred to as "soldier's heart;" in the First World War, it was called "shell shock" and in the Second World War, it was known as "war neurosis." Many soldiers were labelled as having "combat fatigue" when experiencing symptoms associated with PTSD during combat. In the Vietnam War, this became known as a "combat stress reaction." Some of these people continued on to develop what became known, in 1980, as
post-traumatic stress disorder.”