In Flanders Fields

The poppies serve as the poem’s most important symbol. The poem opens by drawing attention to the presence of the poppies in the cemetery, describing how “In Flanders fields the poppies blow / Between the crosses, row on row” (Lines 1-2). The poppies function symbolically in more ways than one. First, their blood-red color alludes to the blood of the fallen, who have died violently in battle. Second, the poppies both mark and beautify the graves, creating a contrast between the beauty of the natural world and the violent deaths resulting from human warfare. Finally, the poppies serve as a symbol of renewal and remembrance: The soldiers narrating the poem warn the living that unless the living continue their fight, they “shall not sleep, though poppies grow / In Flanders fields” (Lines 14-15). In closing the poem with the same poppy-centered imagery with which it opened, the narrators transform the poppy from a feature of the natural landscape into a symbol of remembrance, promise, and cyclical duty between the living and the dead. It should be noted that the symbolism of the poppies in this poem has since taken on real-world significance—thanks to the fame of McCrae’s poem, the poppy is now the symbol worn every Remembrance Day in English-speaking countries to commemorate the veterans of the World Wars (See: Background).