WW1

Beyond Flanders Field: poetry from the First World War

Compiled by: Gabrielle McLaren The sea of red poppies across Canada commemorating Canadian troops burst from a single poem. Though eyewitness accounts vary, Canadian medical officer John McCrae is thought to have written “In Flanders' Field” while overlooking the field of poppies where he had recently buried his best friend. McCrae himself did not survive the First World War, but his poem continues to commemorate not just his best friend, but an entire generation of lost soldiers, the veterans who returned home from the war — and all veterans who came after his time. Poets on the home front and…

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