In Flanders Fields

The poem opens with a description of the poem’s setting, emphasizing both the location and the peculiar nature of the place: “In Flanders Fields the poppies blow / Between the crosses, row on row / That mark our place” (Lines 1-3). The “Flanders Fields” of the first line refer to a location in Belgium, but these are no ordinary fields—they are a cemetery full of war graves, with “crosses, row on row” that “mark” the individual plots where each veteran is buried. The image of the “poppies blow[ing]” upon the graves also introduces the poem’s central symbol, one that is as red as the blood that has been spilt in the battle. The poem’s narration is also revealed in Line 3 to be that of a group of speakers instead of an individual one, with the speakers claiming the graves as “our place.” The use of the possessive our makes it clear that the graves belong to the speakers: The dead are describing their own gravesite and speaking directly to the living. The explicitly-identified setting immediately draws attention to the specificity of the speakers’ circumstances, alluding to the Second Battle of Ypres and thereby linking the war dead to a particular event and location in World War I (See: Background).

The speakers then go on to contrast the natural tranquility of the landscape with the harsh reality of the ongoing war. There are “larks” (Line 4) flying overhead “in the sky” (Line 3), who are “bravely singing” (Line 4), with the “brave[ry]” of the larks’ song representing the resilience and peace of nature. Despite the reassuring presence of the larks, the human battle continues on beneath, with the speakers noting that the larks’ song is “Scarce heard amid the guns below” (Line 5, emphasis added). The reality of the sounds of the “guns” drowning out the birdsong, which is “Scarce heard” by the living, creates tension between the peace of nature and the ongoing violence perpetuated by humans, suggesting that the natural world itself has been eclipsed by the fighting.

In the poem’s second stanza, the speakers once more draw attention to their status as the deceased, saying, “We are the Dead” (Line 6, emphasis added). The capitalization of “Dead” raises the status of the deceased, who did not die of natural causes and who are once more drawing attention to that fact by emphasizing their state as fallen soldiers: They are not just the dead, they are the war “Dead.” The speakers then describe the pleasures and comforts of the life they lived only days previously: “Short days ago / We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow” (Lines 6-7). The references to “dawn” and the “sunset” both speak to time and to the beauties of nature, as “dawn” and “sunset” represent the beginning and end of each day while also suggesting a peaceful communion with the natural world that surrounded them. Now, buried in the earth, the dead no longer have a sense of the day’s beginning or end since they cannot see the light of the rising or setting sun, facing instead the darkness and endlessness of eternity. In the following line, the speakers also allude to the relationships with friends and family that are now severed, speaking of how they “Loved and were loved” (Line 8) during their lifetimes. The simple pleasures of life and love are then contrasted with the abrupt finality of death, with the speakers adding, “and now we lie / In Flanders fields” (Lines 8-9).

In the poem’s third and final stanza, the speakers begin to exhort the living to follow in their footsteps. They urge their listeners to “Take up our quarrel with the foe” (Line 10, emphasis added), with the use of the imperative form (“Take up”) creating a sense of urgency and infusing their plea with the authority of a command. In urging the living to continue the fight against “the foe,” the speakers make it clear that the war is ongoing and that their enmity towards the opposing side remains intact even in death. The speakers create a sense of connection and obligation between the living and the dead, intoning, “To you from failing hands we throw / The torch; be yours to hold it high” (Lines 11-12). The imagery of the “torch” being passed from the dead to the living creates imagery of a relay action, in which the fight the dead participated in is now the responsibility of those who will come after them on the battlefield. The poem then closes with lines that emphasize the importance of the bond between the living and the dead, with the speakers vowing, “If ye break faith with us who die / We shall not sleep, though poppies grow / In Flanders fields” (Lines 13-15). In other words, the dead will only rest peacefully (“sleep”) so long as the living continue to honor their sacrifice by continuing the fight. The poem closes with the same imagery with which it opened—that of the “poppies” in “Flanders fields,” growing upon the graves.