The following version of this poem was used to create this guide: McCrae, John. "In Flanders Fields." Poetry Foundation Online. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47380/in-flanders-fields.

Note that parenthetical citations within the guide refer to the line number from which the quotation is taken.

"In Flanders Fields" is one of the most well-known poems to come out of the First World War. It is John McCrae's most famous work, as he published little as a poet during his lifetime. He was a trained physician from Canada who served as Lieutenant-Colonel during the war, where he was also a surgeon at the Second Battle of Ypres in Belgium. The poem is mythic in its provenance, with many disagreeing on how and when it was written. It is generally accepted that McCrae wrote the poem after attending a funeral for his friend who had been killed in the Battle of Ypres. Historical accounts note that poppies – a prominent symbol in the poem – had been growing among the unmarked graves made for soldiers who died in battle.

In the poem, an unnamed speaker addresses the reader communally as "we." He describes the scenery "in Flanders fields," noting the growing poppies and the birds that fly overhead while battle takes place below (1-5). He then admits that "we are the dead," killed in battle only recently (6-9). Finally, the poem concludes with the speaker encouraging an unnamed "you," presumably the reader, to "Take up our quarrel with the foe" and to continue the work they started (10).