"When people ask me why I keep going to the battlefields, I just say a line from Major John McCrae's famous poem, In Flanders Fields, and that's that 'If ye
break faith with us who die, We shall not sleep.'.
Might we not wonder exactly what WW1 soldier poet John McCrae meant by: 'If ye
break faith with us who die'?
Written in the voice of those who fell at Ypres, it declares, "Take up our quarrel with the foe / To you from failing hands we throw the torch / If ye
break faith with us who die, we shall not sleep." This reasoning has been used to sustain bloodshed in many nations and contexts.
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.
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."
If ye
break faith with us who die We shall not sleep, though poppies grow In Flanders fields.
To you from falling 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.
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