military honors. In attendance were his many friends, military dignitaries, nursing sisters and colleagues. His horse, Bonfire led the procession with John’s riding
boots reversed in the stirrups. Following his death in 1918 the book In Flanders Fields and Other Poems
was published. McCrae House, the home where he was born in Guelph, Ontario, is now a museum and includes a garden of remembrance with a memorial
cenotaph.
D. Criticism
John McCrae’s “In Flanders Fields” is, without a doubt, the best-known Canadian poem. Written in the trenches in 1915 during the Battle of Ypres when
Canadian troops distinguished themselves as a “national” unit for the first time, the poem was published soon after in the British magazine Punch.
David Kelly, in his article Poetry for Students, Gale, 1999, says that John McCrae’s poem “In Flanders Fields” fits perfectly into the
category of phenomenal success. It is one of those achievements that could never have been anticipated. McCrae was, by all accounts, a
decent and responsible man, a good and steady friend, a valuable citizen, doctor, and soldier, but the poetry he produced can generally
be considered as a hobbyist’s dabbling. Like most great inventors, his one outstanding success was a singular conflux of inspiration and its
time http:www.galegroup.compoetsbiohtm.
“In Flanders Fields” addresses a particular place mired within a particular conflict, but death is death and courage is courage, so the subject of the poem
doesn’t have to be foreign to readers who take the trouble to meet it halfway in trying to understand it.
Unlike other war poems, whose warn against war and dismiss its horrors, John McCrae’s poems: “In Flanders Fields”, “The Warrior” and “The Anxious
Dead” offer a covenant between the dead and the living: future generations should not “break faith with us who die” and should value the peace that was won at such
an enormous cost Granfield and Wilson 3, in their book “In Flanders Fields” The Story of
the Poem by John McCrae say that: “In Flanders Fields” is one of the most popular poems ever written on
the subject of war. Its underlying message of respect for the fallen and the
longing for peace has touched the hearts of million of people around the
world. From the perspective of the soldiers, “In Flanders Fields”, “The Warrior”
and “The Anxious Dead” recognized their sacrifice and their suffering in the trenches. From the public’s point of view, the poem was understood in a poetic
language that made the experience of the war accessible to the general reader, it speaks little of the horrors and attaches symbolism to experiences that would be
too painful to convey if expressed in realistic terms. The poems: “In Flanders Fields”, “The Warrior” and “The Anxious Dead”
are great poem to encourage people. Those poems can trigger the patriotism spirit and teach us to sacrifice without breaking our faith. From this poem, we can learn
to be patient and work hard to achieve a new hope. The writer would like to analyze these poems to dig out what is John McCrae view on war from his point
of view as a soldier and a victim of war.
E. Theoretical Framework
