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. (John McCrae, May 1915)
The poppy has been a symbol of remembrance since it caught the imagination in 1915 and then by 1918 when the first one was sold.
We know about the role of symbolism to communicate – but I wonder when and how the process of change takes place and when the poppy shown above will have lost it’s social significance?
anomiepete 