On Memorial Day, we pay tribute to the soldiers who died while in the military service. In Flanders Fields, a poem written by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, a physician in the Canadian army, is one of the best known tributes to fallen soldiers, and marks another notable non-clinical contribution to literature by a doctor.
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.
