ARtefact 5 - War Poetry

• English activity appropriate to KS1, KS2 and KS3.
• English skills: analysis, comprehension, writing.

KS1
At the simplest level the poem can be read and shared with certain key aspects of poetry identified:

• Imagery
• Vocabulary
• Rhyme
• Number of lines

KS2

• Imagery
• Vocabulary
• Rhyme
• Number of lines
• Response to poetry through drawing
• Composing own war or peace poem

KS3

• Imagery
• Metre
• stanzas
• Rhyme
• Response to poem
• Composing own war or peace poem
• Comparing and contrasting different WW1 poems
• Researching the lives of the WW1 poets

John Alexander McCrae

John McCrae was a Canadian doctor and artillery officer (he fought in the 2nd Boer War). In World War 1 he was a surgeon attached to the artillery and experienced the aftermath of the second battle of Ypres in 1915. He went on to setup and command a field hospital near Boulogne in Northern France.

No one really knows for sure what inspired him to write the poem. However, his friend Alexis Helmer was killed by a German artillery shell and McCrae was deeply affected by this. Poppies grew in great numbers in spring and summer across the battlefields and makeshift graveyards. Seeds were distributed through the churning of the ground through constant bombardment and the digging of graves. It is believed that he wrote the poem on the evening of Helmer's funeral but threw it away. A friend of McCrae retrieved it and sent it to a popular magazine of the time called 'Punch'. It was published in December 1915 and became a huge hit. It was re-printed around the world. Today we would say it went 'viral'.

McCrae was a soldier through and through. Despite being a doctor and surgeon he was committed to the war and the sacrifice it demanded. His poem is not an anti-war poem and encourages the living to continue the fight for the dead. It was used extensively as a recruiting tool with great success. It is even thought it contributed to American public opinion moving towards supporting their entrance into the war in 1917.

McCrae never saw the end of the war and died of pneumonia on January 28th 1918 aged 45.

Transcript of poem

In Flanders Fields

by John McCrae, May 1915

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.