[lit-ideas] Canadian content(?)

On 25. Apr 2005, at 20:05, Judy Evans wrote:

> Monday, April 25, 2005, 2:21:00 PM, Steven G. Cameron wrote:
> SGC> **My first anti-war poem learned (we had to memorize it as well) 
> was "In
> SGC> Flanders Fields" by John McCrae (1872-1918) -- studied just prior 
> to
> SGC> Reed's (way back in 9th grade):

I find it interesting that you find 'In Flanders Fields' an antiwar 
poem.  It was not so presented to us through seemingly countless 
renditions every Remembrance Day (Nov. 11th) throughout my school 
years.  ("Take up our quarrel with the foe ... If you break faith with 
us who die we shall not sleep ...', etc.)
>
> Goodness! I think of these poems as very Brit.

I have the distinct impression that John McRae was a Canadian (hence 
the endless repetitions on Remembrance Days in Canadian schools).  I 
have a photo (taken last autumn) of the poem set in a bronze plate on a 
rock marking the Colonel John McRae Nature Trail ("marking the starting 
point of the traIL to honour the famnous soldier-poet") in the 
arboretum of the University of Guelph (it mentions that McRae was an 
OAC [Ontario Agricultural College] alumnus).
>
> SGC> We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
> SGC> In Flanders fields.
>
> Yes -- it is genuinely haunting.

To me especially because McRae himself did not survive the war.

Chris Bruce
Kiel, Germany
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