Introduction
We still remember those who died in the First World War and other conflicts, by wearing a poppy or laying poppy wreaths at memorials, on 11th November. The symbol of a poppy was inspired by a poem, "In Flanders Fields". It was written by John McCrae, a Canadian doctor who saw that poppies had grown in the churned up mud of the battlefield.
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.
- John McCrae
Wilfred Owen - Wartime Poet
Wilfred Owen is one of the best known of all wartime poets. There is a memorial to him in the grounds of Shrewsbury Abbey. He was born in Oswestry in Shropshire, and though he moved for a while to Birkenhead, his family moved back to Shrewsbury when he was at school, and it was there on Armistice Day that his parents heard of his death in the last few days of the war. Read more about Wilfred Owen, and some of his poems
Click on this link and you will find a moving poem by a young girl -
Colonel Cold by Laura Lewis Alvarado (aged 8)