History & Politics
In Flanders Fields
From In Flanders Fields and Other Poems (1919)
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.
Codex Note
Written in 1915 after McCrae buried a friend at Ypres and first published in Punch that December. The dead speak to the living from among the poppies of Flanders, and ask that the quarrel be carried on: 'If ye break faith with us who die / We shall not sleep.'
Cite this poem
MLA
McCrae, John. “In Flanders Fields.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/mccrae/0/.
Chicago
McCrae, John. “In Flanders Fields.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/mccrae/0/.
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