101 Poems, Number 49

Favorite Poems Throughout My Life

49: “In Flanders Fields,” 1915, by John McRae (1872–1918)*

“In Flanders Fields the poppies blow”—

This is a poem, as you know,

That deals with soldiers who have died,

Who gave their lives. McRae replied

With this, which honors those who fell,

Whose stories we must ever tell.

Remember poppies, which still grow

In Flanders, where the winds still blow.

*I asked my middle school students to memorize this for a number of years. Near the end of my teaching career in Aurora, Ohio (mid-1990s), I had some students recite this McRae poem at the Memorial Day service at the cemetery in town. In Flanders lie many who died in World War I—as McRae himself did. A physician, he died of pneumonia.

Link to poem.