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[rmd]

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.

Comments

[dpolicar]

Given a sufficiently broad reading of 'the foe': amen.
Did you intend to attribute this?

[rmd.livejournal.com]

i thought it was sufficiently well known to not be in need of attribution.
In Flanders Field (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Flanders_Fields)

[dpolicar]

(nods) It's pretty famous, and in any case Google makes attribution a questionable necessity.

[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

They went with songs to the battle, they were young.
Straight of limb, true of eyes, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,
They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them.
- Laurence Binyon

[lioritgioret.livejournal.com]

This might be the only poem my dad knows. His dad was Belgian, and it is the only pop culture reference my dad knew to Belgium.

[flabosib.livejournal.com]

Thank you--my dad was a veteran and taught us to go up to other veterans at memorial events and shake their hands and thank them for their service. I am teaching my daughter to do the same. Maybe her granddaughter won't have to because we'll have learned how not to go to war by then.