Compare and contrast... A Canadian response to WWI events:
In Flanders Fields by John McCrae, May 1915
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.
Here's a later response by an American reader of "In Flanders Fields"...
We Shall Keep the Faith by Moina Michael, November 1918
Oh! you who sleep in Flanders Fields, Sleep sweet - to rise anew! We caught the torch you threw And holding high, we keep the Faith With All who died. We cherish, too, the poppy red That grows on fields where valor led; It seems to signal to the skies That blood of heroes never dies, But lends a lustre to the red Of the flower that blooms above the dead In Flanders Fields. And now the Torch and Poppy Red We wear in honor of our dead. Fear not that ye have died for naught; We'll teach the lesson that ye wrought In Flanders Fields.
Now, what's the comparison, the contrast? Well, not so much between the more famous "In Flanders Fields" and the less-well-known (today, at least) "We Shall Keep the Faith" but between the two poems and... attitudes today toward those who have fallen in service to their country. Today, large numbers of Americans hold such sacrifice in disdain. Indeed, many have attended and participated in "demonstrations" that have celebrated the terrorist savages who seek to kill not only American servicemen and women but civilian non-combatans as well.
Moina Michael's now less-well-known poem was instrumental in establishing "Decoration Day" (now Memorial Day) and in establishing the (apparently dying) tradition of wearing a poppy in honor of our fallen military. That McRae's poem is "better" art, I'll not dispute. But Moina Michael's poem has a heart that's sadly missing in all too many Americans today who cannot comprehend, let alone echo these lines: We cherish, too, the poppy red That grows on fields where valor led; It seems to signal to the skies That blood of heroes never dies
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