Remembrance/Armistice Day

[Ben Kenobi]

Surprised no one else has posted this yet.

Up here it's the tradition to have people read out this poem:

LIEUTENANT COLONEL JOHN MCRAE

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.

LEST WE FORGET

[alva]

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[notyoueither]

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[Dr Strangelove]

Here's a video you might enjoy Ben:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=hC9MCrhlnZs

We call it Veteran's day here, I think probably because we already had a Memorial Day. Originally designated "Decoration Day", a day to remember the civil war dead began in the northern states in 1866. In an attempt to lure the southern states into joining the celebration the name was changed to Memorial Day in 1882. After the end of WW1 the US began celebrating "Armistice Day" on Nov. 11, then in 1954 changed the name to Veteran's Day in order to include veterans of WW2 and Korea.

[Grandpa Troll]

Re: Remembrance/Armistice Day

Originally posted by Ben Kenobi
Surprised no one else has posted this yet.

Up here it's the tradition to have people read out this poem:

LIEUTENANT COLONEL JOHN MCRAE

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.

LEST WE FORGET

I grew up in Maine in the 50's and 60's and we recited that during Memorial Day however, remembering those that perished during military action

[Nugog]

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[Ben Kenobi]

Thanks Doc. That was a very nice video.

[Asher]

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[Nostromo]

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[Rufus T. Firefly]

I've never been able to fathom the popularity of In Flanders Field. If there's any single poem that should never, ever be used to remember WWI, it's a poem that urges the listener to

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

It's that kind of thinking that made WWI the tragedy it was to begin with. Christ, I hate that poem.

But in the spirit of the day, I offer this instead:

Dulce Et Decorum Est
Wilfred Owen (d. Nov. 4, 1918, on the Western Front)

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of disappointed shells that dropped behind.

GAS! Gas! Quick, boys!-- An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And floundering like a man in fire or lime.--
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.

In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,--
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.*

* Translation: It is sweet and fitting to die for one's country

[Kuciwalker]

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[Dr Strangelove]

There are songs and poems that were popularized during WW1 which today seem tragic. I confess that sometimes I feel a love/hate relationship with them. The one that really gets me is: "I vow to thee my country".

I vow to thee, my country, all earthly things above,
Entire and whole and perfect, the service of my love;
The love that asks no question, the love that stands the test,
That lays upon the altar the dearest and the best;
The love that never falters, the love that pays the price,
The love that makes undaunted the final sacrifice.

And there's another country, I've heard of long ago,
Most dear to them that love her, most great to them that know;
We may not count her armies, we may not see her King;
Her fortress is a faithful heart, her pride is suffering;
And soul by soul and silently her shining bounds increase,
And her ways are ways of gentleness, and all her paths are peace.

I can't think of a more chilling expression of mindless obedience and unswerving nationalism. OTOH what were the British supposed to do? The real problem was the realpolitik game over the domination of the Balkans being played by Russia, Austro-Hungary, Serbia and Germany. Ironically the place under dispute, Bosnia-Herzegovina, would 80 years later choose to its own way.

[notyoueither]

Originally posted by Rufus T. Firefly
I've never been able to fathom the popularity of In Flanders Field. If there's any single poem that should never, ever be used to remember WWI, it's a poem that urges the listener to

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

It's that kind of thinking that made WWI the tragedy it was to begin with. Christ, I hate that poem.

I can see why you might say that, but I can handle it since it was written by someone there. I can see the POV that some would not like their sacrifice to be in vain.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Originally posted by notyoueither


I can see why you might say that, but I can handle it since it was written by someone there. I can see the POV that some would not like their sacrifice to be in vain.

Fair enough. I just prefer the POV of Owen, who was also there and who grasped that the sacrifices were in vain, and that future generations would do well to understand that.

[notyoueither]

McRae was not painting a glorius portrait of war. In fact, his words have always haunted me with their pithy expression of the costs.

I would also be happier if a generation after WWI were not so adverse to conflict due to the horror that II was all the more horrible for the hesitation.

There is more than one lesson to be drawn from the period 1914-1945, and the feeling that war is to be avoided at all costs is not one of them.