“In Flanders Fields”


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Photo: Wikimedia Commons - Public Domain

This photo shows poppy wreaths placed at Menin Gate in Ypres, Belgium. McCrae’s poem helped popularize the poppy as a symbol of remembrance.

According to the Canadian Encyclopedia, when John McCrae’s 15-line poem “In Flanders Fields” first appeared in the Dec. 8, 1915, issue of the British magazine Punch, he did not receive credit as the author. However, the public noticed the poem and soon it was being memorized, copied into letters, set to music and translated into many languages.