WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.360 Welcome, welcome in. Hello. Today we are taking 00:00:04.360 --> 00:00:08.259 a deep dive into something you have almost certainly 00:00:08.259 --> 00:00:10.500 encountered. Right. Probably even memorized at 00:00:10.500 --> 00:00:11.980 some point in your life. Yeah, exactly. But maybe 00:00:11.980 --> 00:00:13.900 you've never fully unpacked it. We are talking 00:00:13.900 --> 00:00:17.000 about the world's most famous war poem in Flanders 00:00:17.000 --> 00:00:20.219 Fields by John McCrae. And the sources we're 00:00:20.219 --> 00:00:23.359 drawing from today offer this. really well, like 00:00:23.359 --> 00:00:26.800 a remarkably sweeping profile of the text. We're 00:00:26.800 --> 00:00:29.339 looking at a blend of historical battlefield 00:00:29.339 --> 00:00:33.500 accounts, cultural analyses, and literary critiques. 00:00:33.600 --> 00:00:36.100 Which is a lot to cover. It is, yeah. But it 00:00:36.100 --> 00:00:39.200 lets us track the poem from the literal mud of 00:00:39.200 --> 00:00:42.079 Belgium to its current status over a century 00:00:42.079 --> 00:00:44.549 later. So the mission for today's deep dive is 00:00:44.549 --> 00:00:47.850 to uncover how a short, you know, a 15 -line 00:00:47.850 --> 00:00:49.750 verse supposedly scribbled in the back of an 00:00:49.750 --> 00:00:52.829 ambulance managed to become not just a global 00:00:52.829 --> 00:00:55.570 symbol of remembrance, but a tool for fierce 00:00:55.570 --> 00:00:58.090 political propaganda. Yeah, and the literal origin 00:00:58.090 --> 00:01:00.369 story of the memorial poppy that millions of 00:01:00.369 --> 00:01:02.920 people wear on their lapels today. It's wild. 00:01:03.020 --> 00:01:06.280 There is this vast complex history behind these 00:01:06.280 --> 00:01:10.939 words that extends far beyond those quiet memorial 00:01:10.939 --> 00:01:13.400 services we associate them with now. Okay, let's 00:01:13.400 --> 00:01:15.719 unpack this. Well, to understand the genesis 00:01:15.719 --> 00:01:18.280 of the poem, we have to look closely at the man 00:01:18.280 --> 00:01:20.920 who actually wrote it. John McCrae. Right, John 00:01:20.920 --> 00:01:23.260 McCrae. He was 41 years old when the first World 00:01:23.260 --> 00:01:25.510 War broke out. Which is, I mean, that's relatively 00:01:25.510 --> 00:01:28.049 old for a soldier. Exactly. He was a physician 00:01:28.049 --> 00:01:30.450 and a poet from Gulf, Ontario. That's it. And 00:01:30.450 --> 00:01:32.930 given his age and his extensive medical training, 00:01:33.349 --> 00:01:35.290 he could have completely understandably just 00:01:35.290 --> 00:01:37.549 joined the medical corps. Sure. Taken a relatively 00:01:37.549 --> 00:01:39.549 safe position far from the front lines. Yeah, 00:01:39.689 --> 00:01:41.629 no one would have blamed him. But he made a very 00:01:41.629 --> 00:01:44.590 different choice out of this deep sense of duty. 00:01:44.810 --> 00:01:47.870 It's a massive psychological and physical shift, 00:01:48.030 --> 00:01:50.819 isn't it? He goes from being a respected doctor 00:01:50.819 --> 00:01:53.719 in a quiet Canadian city to actively volunteering 00:01:53.719 --> 00:01:57.219 for a fighting unit. He joined the Canadian Expeditionary 00:01:57.219 --> 00:01:59.939 Force as both a metal hull officer and a gunner. 00:02:00.000 --> 00:02:02.200 Yeah, he had grown up with a very Victorian belief 00:02:02.200 --> 00:02:04.879 in the duty of fighting for his country and the 00:02:04.879 --> 00:02:06.939 British Empire. Because he'd already served in 00:02:06.939 --> 00:02:09.599 the Second Boer War. He had, yes. So he really 00:02:09.599 --> 00:02:12.479 viewed himself as a soldier first. And that profound 00:02:12.479 --> 00:02:14.780 sense of obligation placed him directly into 00:02:14.780 --> 00:02:17.340 one of the most horrific settings in modern military 00:02:17.340 --> 00:02:20.340 history. The Second Battle of Ypres. Right. In 00:02:20.340 --> 00:02:23.400 the Flanders region of Belgium, this was April 00:02:23.400 --> 00:02:27.020 and May of 1915. And we should note, this wasn't 00:02:27.020 --> 00:02:29.520 just a standard engagement. No. This battle marked 00:02:29.520 --> 00:02:31.639 a terrifying turning point in the history of 00:02:31.639 --> 00:02:34.370 warfare. This was where the German army launched 00:02:34.370 --> 00:02:36.969 one of the very first chemical attacks. Using 00:02:36.969 --> 00:02:39.550 chlorine gas? Yes, using chlorine gas against 00:02:39.550 --> 00:02:41.650 the French positions just north of the Canadians. 00:02:42.039 --> 00:02:45.580 And the Canadian line miraculously held for over 00:02:45.580 --> 00:02:48.360 two weeks, but the conditions they endured to 00:02:48.360 --> 00:02:51.080 maintain that line are, well, they're almost 00:02:51.080 --> 00:02:53.400 incomprehensible. Absolutely brutal. I want to 00:02:53.400 --> 00:02:55.759 share a quote from a letter McCray wrote to his 00:02:55.759 --> 00:02:58.000 mother during the specific battle just to ground 00:02:58.000 --> 00:03:00.400 you, the listener, in the psychological weight 00:03:00.400 --> 00:03:02.580 of what he was experiencing. It's a heavy quote. 00:03:02.860 --> 00:03:07.159 It is. He wrote, and I'm quoting here, For 17 00:03:07.159 --> 00:03:10.159 days and 17 nights, none of us have had our clothes 00:03:10.159 --> 00:03:13.340 off, nor our boots even, except occasionally. 00:03:13.620 --> 00:03:16.860 Wow. In all that time while I was awake, gunfire 00:03:16.860 --> 00:03:20.500 and rifle fire never ceased for 60 seconds. And 00:03:20.500 --> 00:03:22.860 behind it all was the constant background of 00:03:22.860 --> 00:03:25.639 the sights of the dead, the wounded, the maimed, 00:03:25.699 --> 00:03:28.360 and a terrible anxiety, lest the line should 00:03:28.360 --> 00:03:30.949 give way. You really just have to imagine the 00:03:30.949 --> 00:03:34.430 sheer sensory overload of that. 17 continuous 00:03:34.430 --> 00:03:37.189 days of deafening artillery, the threat of poison 00:03:37.189 --> 00:03:40.729 gas, the constant influx of casualties, and then 00:03:40.729 --> 00:03:43.229 the immediate catalyst for the poem occurs right 00:03:43.229 --> 00:03:45.789 in the midst of that chaos. Right, on May 2nd. 00:03:45.879 --> 00:03:48.159 Yeah, McCray's close friend, a young officer 00:03:48.159 --> 00:03:50.539 named Alexis Helmer, is killed by a direct hit 00:03:50.539 --> 00:03:52.860 from an artillery show. Oh, man. And because 00:03:52.860 --> 00:03:54.740 the fighting is so intense and a chaplain is 00:03:54.740 --> 00:03:57.520 unavailable, McCray performs the burial service 00:03:57.520 --> 00:03:59.699 for his friend himself. Wow. And during that 00:03:59.699 --> 00:04:02.020 quiet moment, he notices something stark in the 00:04:02.020 --> 00:04:04.539 landscape. Wild poppies are quickly growing around 00:04:04.539 --> 00:04:06.879 the fresh makeshift graves of those who had just 00:04:06.879 --> 00:04:10.360 died. The emotional contrast there is just devastating. 00:04:10.939 --> 00:04:13.580 You have the absolute mechanized destruction 00:04:13.580 --> 00:04:15.960 of the Ypres landscape and pushing up through 00:04:15.960 --> 00:04:20.079 that same churned earth. are these delicate bright 00:04:20.079 --> 00:04:24.439 red flowers. So the very next day, May 3rd, McCray 00:04:24.439 --> 00:04:26.339 is sitting in the back of an ambulance at an 00:04:26.339 --> 00:04:28.600 advanced dressing station. Which was essentially 00:04:28.600 --> 00:04:32.560 a chaotic makeshift medical tent located perilously 00:04:32.560 --> 00:04:34.839 close to the front lines. Exactly. And in that 00:04:34.839 --> 00:04:37.199 setting, he decides to give a voice to the dead. 00:04:37.720 --> 00:04:40.360 That perspective is crucial to the poem's enduring 00:04:40.360 --> 00:04:42.819 power. It isn't written from the point of view 00:04:42.819 --> 00:04:45.720 of a survivor mourning the loss or a distant 00:04:45.720 --> 00:04:48.439 observer analyzing the conflict. Right. It's 00:04:48.439 --> 00:04:50.000 written directly from the point of view of the 00:04:50.000 --> 00:04:52.240 fallen soldiers. They are the ones speaking to 00:04:52.240 --> 00:04:54.199 the reader. Now given how famous the poem is 00:04:54.199 --> 00:04:56.480 now, you would think we'd have a perfectly preserved 00:04:56.480 --> 00:04:59.339 original manuscript. You'd think so. But the 00:04:59.339 --> 00:05:01.899 story of how it was actually put to paper is 00:05:01.899 --> 00:05:04.939 steeped in this almost cinematic mythology. Yes, 00:05:05.079 --> 00:05:07.500 the creation myth. The famous creation myth. 00:05:07.639 --> 00:05:10.660 It goes like this. Sergeant Major Cyril Allenson 00:05:10.660 --> 00:05:13.040 was delivering the brigade's mail, and he supposedly 00:05:13.040 --> 00:05:15.759 watches McCray writing the poem on a notepad. 00:05:16.500 --> 00:05:19.259 The legend claims McCray's eyes kept darting 00:05:19.259 --> 00:05:21.839 between his page and his friend Helmer's grave. 00:05:22.660 --> 00:05:25.199 Then, dissatisfied with his own work, McCray 00:05:25.199 --> 00:05:27.660 supposedly crumples up the paper and throws it 00:05:27.660 --> 00:05:29.720 away. Only for it to be retrieved from the mud 00:05:29.720 --> 00:05:32.339 by a fellow soldier. Exactly. It's so dramatic. 00:05:32.500 --> 00:05:34.939 What's fascinating here is how cultural memory 00:05:34.939 --> 00:05:37.639 tends to romanticize the artistic process. Oh, 00:05:37.639 --> 00:05:40.519 for sure. We compress what is usually a grueling 00:05:40.519 --> 00:05:43.699 editorial effort into a single dramatic moment 00:05:43.699 --> 00:05:46.399 of tortured genius. Right, the 20 -minute masterpiece. 00:05:46.819 --> 00:05:49.579 Exactly. But when we look at the historical record, 00:05:49.839 --> 00:05:52.180 that 20 -minute masterpiece myth completely falls 00:05:52.180 --> 00:05:54.990 apart. So... If the crumpled paper narrative 00:05:54.990 --> 00:05:57.889 is a later invention, what does the actual timeline 00:05:57.889 --> 00:06:00.110 of its creation look like? Well, it was a much 00:06:00.110 --> 00:06:02.269 longer, much more deliberate process. We know 00:06:02.269 --> 00:06:04.449 this largely because of the diary of Claire Gass. 00:06:04.569 --> 00:06:07.769 She was a battlefield nurse, right? Yes. Serving 00:06:07.769 --> 00:06:10.470 near McCray. She actually transcribed an early 00:06:10.470 --> 00:06:14.610 copy of the poem into her diary on October 30th, 00:06:14.790 --> 00:06:18.189 1915. Wow. OK. And that is nearly six weeks before 00:06:18.189 --> 00:06:20.430 the poem was officially published. So McCray 00:06:20.430 --> 00:06:23.610 worked on these 15 lines for months. Months. 00:06:23.670 --> 00:06:26.009 Yeah. He refined them constantly between treating 00:06:26.009 --> 00:06:28.529 shattered bodies in the medical tents. He even 00:06:28.529 --> 00:06:30.730 submitted it to a prominent publication in London 00:06:30.730 --> 00:06:34.079 called The Spectator. They outright rejected 00:06:34.079 --> 00:06:36.920 it. That is just, it's difficult to fathom the 00:06:36.920 --> 00:06:39.439 editor who looked at In Flanders Fields and decided 00:06:39.439 --> 00:06:42.259 it wasn't worth printing. I know. But it eventually 00:06:42.259 --> 00:06:44.720 found a home in Punch Magazine, a British weekly, 00:06:45.120 --> 00:06:46.899 where it was published anonymously on December 00:06:46.899 --> 00:06:50.259 8th, 1915. Anonymous. Yeah, the magazine only 00:06:50.259 --> 00:06:52.540 credited McCray later in their year -end index. 00:06:52.720 --> 00:06:54.769 Okay. Even after it found a home in print, there 00:06:54.769 --> 00:06:56.689 is another layer to this text. Here's where it 00:06:56.689 --> 00:06:59.129 gets really interesting. Oh, the debate. Yes. 00:06:59.629 --> 00:07:02.410 There is an enduring decades -long debate over 00:07:02.410 --> 00:07:04.750 the very first line of the poem, and it centers 00:07:04.750 --> 00:07:07.589 entirely around a single word. It does. Did the 00:07:07.589 --> 00:07:10.410 poppies grow or did they blow? While it might 00:07:10.410 --> 00:07:13.149 seem like a minor semantic detail, it became 00:07:13.149 --> 00:07:15.709 a significant point of historical contention. 00:07:15.730 --> 00:07:18.769 Yeah. Because according to Sergeant Major Allenson's 00:07:18.769 --> 00:07:22.220 account, The poem originally began with, in Flanders 00:07:22.220 --> 00:07:25.779 fields the poppies grow. Okay. Furthermore, when 00:07:25.779 --> 00:07:27.939 McCray made handwritten copies of the poem to 00:07:27.939 --> 00:07:30.699 send home to his friends and family, he consistently 00:07:30.699 --> 00:07:33.699 used the word grow. Right. He also ends the penultimate 00:07:33.699 --> 00:07:36.759 line of the poem with the word grow, establishing 00:07:36.759 --> 00:07:39.310 a deliberate Repetition. But when the poem went 00:07:39.310 --> 00:07:42.569 to Punch magazine, the editors supposedly got 00:07:42.569 --> 00:07:44.990 permission to change that opening line. Right. 00:07:44.990 --> 00:07:47.870 So the published version reads, In Flanders feels 00:07:47.870 --> 00:07:51.810 the poppies blow between the crosses row on row. 00:07:51.949 --> 00:07:55.009 And that single editorial choice from 1915 echoed 00:07:55.009 --> 00:07:57.689 into a massive controversy decades later. Decades 00:07:57.689 --> 00:08:00.149 later. The intensity of that debate really came 00:08:00.149 --> 00:08:03.050 to a head in the year 2001. Yes. The Bank of 00:08:03.050 --> 00:08:06.550 Canada released a newly designed $10 bill. They 00:08:06.550 --> 00:08:09.660 decided to feature the first stanza of In Flanders 00:08:09.660 --> 00:08:12.699 Fields on the currency. A nice tribute. You'd 00:08:12.699 --> 00:08:15.199 think. But they chose the Punch Magazine version, 00:08:15.600 --> 00:08:18.259 ending the first line with the word blow. And 00:08:18.259 --> 00:08:20.899 the reaction was immediate. Immediate and intense. 00:08:21.439 --> 00:08:24.079 The Bank of Canada was entirely inundated with 00:08:24.079 --> 00:08:26.420 queries and furious complaints from citizens 00:08:26.420 --> 00:08:28.800 who were absolutely certain the federal government 00:08:28.800 --> 00:08:31.199 had made a typographical error on the national 00:08:31.199 --> 00:08:33.679 currency. Because they had been taught grow in 00:08:33.679 --> 00:08:36.080 grade school. Exactly. And they felt a fierce 00:08:36.080 --> 00:08:39.759 protective ownership over the text. That visceral 00:08:39.759 --> 00:08:42.450 reaction from the public. perfectly illustrates 00:08:42.450 --> 00:08:45.049 the massive shift that happened shortly after 00:08:45.049 --> 00:08:48.370 the poem's initial publication. How so? Well, 00:08:48.690 --> 00:08:51.370 In Flanders Fields did not remain a quiet personal 00:08:51.370 --> 00:08:54.769 memorial for Alexis Helmer. Its popularity exploded 00:08:54.769 --> 00:08:57.470 globally. It provided a universal language for 00:08:57.470 --> 00:08:59.830 grief. For the soldiers in the trenches, it was 00:08:59.830 --> 00:09:01.629 read as a statement of duty from their fallen 00:09:01.629 --> 00:09:03.950 brothers. For the civilians on the home front, 00:09:04.330 --> 00:09:06.649 it served as a defining justification for the 00:09:06.649 --> 00:09:09.049 war itself. Offering meaning to an otherwise 00:09:09.049 --> 00:09:11.950 unimaginable scale of loss. Precisely. And that 00:09:11.950 --> 00:09:14.889 universal appeal translated rapidly across different 00:09:14.889 --> 00:09:18.029 cultural mediums. I mean, by 1920, at least 55 00:09:18.029 --> 00:09:20.129 different composers in the United States alone 00:09:20.129 --> 00:09:23.450 had set the poem to music. Fifty five. That's 00:09:23.450 --> 00:09:26.100 incredible. Legendary musical figures like John 00:09:26.100 --> 00:09:29.299 Philip Sousa and Charles Ives created complex 00:09:29.299 --> 00:09:32.360 musical arrangements of McCrae's words, embedding 00:09:32.360 --> 00:09:34.779 them even deeper into the public consciousness. 00:09:35.139 --> 00:09:37.519 But when a piece of art achieves that level of 00:09:37.519 --> 00:09:40.480 cultural resonance, it inevitably becomes a tool 00:09:40.480 --> 00:09:43.620 for persuasion. Right. The poem was heavily utilized 00:09:43.620 --> 00:09:46.220 for political propaganda. Oh, heavily. It was 00:09:46.220 --> 00:09:48.379 featured prominently in campaigns to sell war 00:09:48.379 --> 00:09:51.039 bonds, to drive military recruiting efforts, 00:09:51.279 --> 00:09:55.509 and to sharply criticize or anyone advocating 00:09:55.509 --> 00:09:58.309 for a negotiated peace. To understand the historical 00:09:58.309 --> 00:10:00.429 impact of the poem, we really have to examine 00:10:00.429 --> 00:10:03.129 how it was wielded politically. And we are looking 00:10:03.129 --> 00:10:05.649 at this strictly through an impartial historical 00:10:05.649 --> 00:10:08.029 lens here, just to see how the text was applied 00:10:08.029 --> 00:10:10.110 in real time. Of course. We aren't taking any 00:10:10.110 --> 00:10:12.789 sides. But a defining example of this is the 00:10:12.789 --> 00:10:15.629 Canadian conscription crisis of 1917. Right. 00:10:15.870 --> 00:10:18.429 The country was deeply fractured. French Canadians, 00:10:18.809 --> 00:10:21.090 largely centered in Quebec, were strongly opposed 00:10:21.090 --> 00:10:23.110 to the possibility of conscription. Because they 00:10:23.110 --> 00:10:25.649 felt little allegiance to Britain or France. 00:10:26.129 --> 00:10:28.570 Exactly. They viewed the war as an imperialist 00:10:28.570 --> 00:10:32.190 conflict. Conversely, English Canadians overwhelmingly 00:10:32.190 --> 00:10:34.570 supported Prime Minister Robert Borden and his 00:10:34.570 --> 00:10:37.490 Unionist government in their push to enact conscription. 00:10:37.649 --> 00:10:40.610 To reinforce the depleted troops overseas. Right. 00:10:40.710 --> 00:10:43.509 And during this bitter campaign in Flanders Fields 00:10:43.509 --> 00:10:46.629 was actively weaponized by English Canadians. 00:10:47.070 --> 00:10:50.250 as a political tool to shame and pressure those 00:10:50.250 --> 00:10:54.980 opposing the draft. Contemporary reports suggested 00:10:54.980 --> 00:10:57.399 that the poem did more to make the Dominion persevere 00:10:57.399 --> 00:10:59.679 in the fighting than any political speech of 00:10:59.679 --> 00:11:02.340 the era. And McCray himself was not a passive 00:11:02.340 --> 00:11:05.019 observer in this. No, he wasn't. He was a staunch 00:11:05.019 --> 00:11:08.120 supporter of the British Empire and was highly 00:11:08.120 --> 00:11:10.480 political regarding the draft. He was actually 00:11:10.480 --> 00:11:12.639 quite pleased with how his poem was being utilized. 00:11:12.779 --> 00:11:15.620 He actually wrote a letter during the 1917 election 00:11:15.620 --> 00:11:18.039 containing a surprisingly aggressive sentiment. 00:11:18.299 --> 00:11:20.559 He wrote, I hope I stabbed a French Canadian 00:11:20.559 --> 00:11:23.779 with my vote. Yeah, that quote. really shatters 00:11:23.779 --> 00:11:26.639 the purely pastoral peaceful image we often project 00:11:26.639 --> 00:11:29.519 onto historical poets. It really does. It grounds 00:11:29.519 --> 00:11:32.679 McCray as a man deeply entrenched in the bitter 00:11:32.679 --> 00:11:36.879 high -stakes politics of his time and that aggressive 00:11:37.129 --> 00:11:40.190 pro -war stance embedded within the poem itself 00:11:40.190 --> 00:11:43.570 has not escaped modern literary criticism. Right, 00:11:43.610 --> 00:11:45.450 and I want to look closely at what happened to 00:11:45.450 --> 00:11:47.970 the text itself under that critical lens. In 00:11:47.970 --> 00:11:51.029 1975, the prominent historian and literary critic 00:11:51.029 --> 00:11:54.169 Paul Fussell published a deeply critical analysis 00:11:54.169 --> 00:11:57.049 of the poem. In his seminal book, The Great War 00:11:57.049 --> 00:11:59.730 and Modern Memory, Fussell's critique is arguably 00:11:59.730 --> 00:12:02.370 the most famous modern reevaluation of McCrae's 00:12:02.370 --> 00:12:04.690 work. And again, we're just reporting his views 00:12:04.690 --> 00:12:06.690 here. Right. Fussell acknowledges that the first 00:12:06.690 --> 00:12:08.990 nine lines of the poem are masterful. They possess 00:12:08.990 --> 00:12:12.190 a beautiful, mournful tone. Contrasting the singing 00:12:12.190 --> 00:12:15.250 larks with the guns below. But Fussell vehemently 00:12:15.250 --> 00:12:17.509 attacks the final stanza. That is the section 00:12:17.509 --> 00:12:19.669 that reads, take up our quarrel with the foe. 00:12:19.850 --> 00:12:22.129 To you from failing hands we throw the torch. 00:12:22.429 --> 00:12:25.039 Be yours to hold it high. Fossil categorized 00:12:25.039 --> 00:12:27.980 that specific stanza as recruiting poster rhetoric. 00:12:28.200 --> 00:12:30.779 Wow. He described the sudden shift in tone as 00:12:30.779 --> 00:12:33.980 vicious and stupid. Those are strong words. Very 00:12:33.980 --> 00:12:36.820 strong. He argued that it abandoned the solemn 00:12:36.820 --> 00:12:39.179 reflection of the dead in favor of a propaganda 00:12:39.179 --> 00:12:42.240 argument explicitly designed to prevent a negotiated 00:12:42.240 --> 00:12:44.899 peace and demand more bloodshed. So what does 00:12:44.899 --> 00:12:47.659 this all mean? I want you to consider the profound 00:12:47.659 --> 00:12:50.700 contradiction here. A piece of art. Born out 00:12:50.700 --> 00:12:53.220 of the raw personal grief of burying a friend 00:12:53.220 --> 00:12:55.940 in the mud of Ypres is completely co -opted. 00:12:56.460 --> 00:12:59.820 It transforms into a rallying cry used to send 00:12:59.820 --> 00:13:02.940 thousands more young men into the exact same 00:13:02.940 --> 00:13:05.620 mechanized meat grinder that inspired the initial 00:13:05.620 --> 00:13:08.980 grief. The poem simultaneously mourns the dead 00:13:08.980 --> 00:13:11.580 and demands more of them. It's a staggering thought. 00:13:11.720 --> 00:13:13.840 If we connect this to the bigger picture, the 00:13:13.840 --> 00:13:16.620 legacy of McCray's words extends even beyond 00:13:16.620 --> 00:13:18.919 the political sphere. Okay. The poem actually 00:13:18.919 --> 00:13:21.379 physically manifested in the world through the 00:13:21.379 --> 00:13:25.100 adoption of the red poppy. The poppy. Yes. And 00:13:25.100 --> 00:13:27.000 the reason those specific flowers were growing 00:13:27.000 --> 00:13:29.840 in Flanders is a fascinating piece of the botany 00:13:29.840 --> 00:13:32.899 of war. See, the imagery of the poppy is so poetic 00:13:32.899 --> 00:13:35.460 that it's easy to assume it was merely a literary 00:13:35.460 --> 00:13:37.539 flourish on McCrae's part. But it wasn't. It 00:13:37.539 --> 00:13:40.440 was actually a highly specific ecological reaction. 00:13:40.840 --> 00:13:44.120 Yes, the Flanders landscape was absolutely devastated 00:13:44.120 --> 00:13:47.700 by relentless artillery fire. Millions of explosives 00:13:47.700 --> 00:13:49.799 fundamentally altered the chemical composition 00:13:49.799 --> 00:13:52.299 of the earth. How so? The limestone bedrock was 00:13:52.299 --> 00:13:54.639 shattered. which dramatically increased the lime 00:13:54.639 --> 00:13:56.799 content in the surface soil. Oh, interesting. 00:13:57.000 --> 00:13:59.259 And because of that sudden artificial spike in 00:13:59.259 --> 00:14:02.899 lime... The popover Roas, the red poppy, was 00:14:02.899 --> 00:14:05.679 one of the only plants biologically capable of 00:14:05.679 --> 00:14:08.419 taking root in that devastated, highly alkaline 00:14:08.419 --> 00:14:12.100 region. Wow. So the war literally engineered 00:14:12.100 --> 00:14:14.200 the perfect environment for the poppy to thrive. 00:14:14.679 --> 00:14:17.659 Exactly. That botanical phenomenon, immortalized 00:14:17.659 --> 00:14:21.059 by McCray, initiated an incredible global journey 00:14:21.059 --> 00:14:23.629 for the physical poppy. It did. The tradition 00:14:23.629 --> 00:14:26.110 began with an American professor named Amoyna 00:14:26.110 --> 00:14:28.350 Michael. She read the poem around the time of 00:14:28.350 --> 00:14:31.809 the armistice in 1918 and was so profoundly moved 00:14:31.809 --> 00:14:34.669 that she resolved to wear a red silk poppy year 00:14:34.669 --> 00:14:37.190 round to honor the dead. She even penned a response 00:14:37.190 --> 00:14:39.710 poem titled We Shall Keep the Faith. She became 00:14:39.710 --> 00:14:42.129 an active campaigner, pushing the American Legion 00:14:42.129 --> 00:14:45.149 to adopt the poppy as an official symbol of remembrance. 00:14:45.590 --> 00:14:49.450 And then during a 1920 convention, a French woman 00:14:49.450 --> 00:14:53.679 named Madame E. Guerin observed this effort and 00:14:53.679 --> 00:14:55.779 immediately recognized its broader potential. 00:14:56.120 --> 00:14:58.899 Right. She returned to France and began organizing 00:14:58.899 --> 00:15:01.779 the sale of handmade poppies to raise vital funds 00:15:01.779 --> 00:15:03.960 for the orphans of the war. And the movement 00:15:03.960 --> 00:15:07.379 then jumps across the English Channel. In 1921, 00:15:07.620 --> 00:15:10.100 Madame Guerin sends poppy sellers to London just 00:15:10.100 --> 00:15:12.740 ahead of Armistice Day. Which catches the attention 00:15:12.740 --> 00:15:15.409 of Field Marshal Douglas Haig. a co -founder 00:15:15.409 --> 00:15:18.370 of the Royal British Legion. Hague throws his 00:15:18.370 --> 00:15:20.490 immense institutional weight behind the idea. 00:15:20.830 --> 00:15:22.950 And suddenly, the tradition of wearing the poppy 00:15:22.950 --> 00:15:25.429 is formalized and spreads across the entire British 00:15:25.429 --> 00:15:28.289 Empire. Taking root in Canada, Australia, New 00:15:28.289 --> 00:15:30.669 Zealand, and South Africa. It became an incredibly 00:15:30.669 --> 00:15:33.409 powerful unifying symbol across the Commonwealth. 00:15:34.070 --> 00:15:36.870 Today, it remains deeply associated with Remembrance 00:15:36.870 --> 00:15:39.830 Day, as well as Veterans Day and Memorial Day 00:15:39.830 --> 00:15:42.460 in the United States. And the poem's reach extends 00:15:42.460 --> 00:15:45.820 far beyond solemn civic ceremonies. Just to illustrate 00:15:45.820 --> 00:15:47.860 how deeply these words have permeated general 00:15:47.860 --> 00:15:50.539 pop culture for you, consider the Montreal Canadiens' 00:15:50.860 --> 00:15:52.539 professional walkie team. Oh, this is a great 00:15:52.539 --> 00:15:55.899 detail. Since 1940, the club's official motto 00:15:55.899 --> 00:15:58.720 has been, to you from failing hands we threw 00:15:58.720 --> 00:16:02.000 the torch, be yours to hold it high. That exact 00:16:02.000 --> 00:16:04.500 line from the third stanza. That exact line from 00:16:04.500 --> 00:16:06.820 In Flanders Fields is painted directly onto the 00:16:06.820 --> 00:16:08.799 wall of their dressing room. The journey of those 00:16:08.799 --> 00:16:11.320 words is staggering. They move from a blood -soaked 00:16:11.320 --> 00:16:14.610 medical tent in Belgium to the locker room of 00:16:14.610 --> 00:16:17.190 a professional sports franchise. We have traced 00:16:17.190 --> 00:16:20.029 these 15 lines through an incredible century 00:16:20.029 --> 00:16:22.389 of history. From a grief -stricken ambulance 00:16:22.389 --> 00:16:25.370 ride, through editorial rejection letters, into 00:16:25.370 --> 00:16:27.470 the heart of a vicious national conscription 00:16:27.470 --> 00:16:31.190 debate, and ultimately to global ubiquity. The 00:16:31.190 --> 00:16:34.250 Royal Canadian Mint even utilized the poppy to 00:16:34.250 --> 00:16:37.309 create the world's very first multicolored circulation 00:16:37.309 --> 00:16:40.950 coin in 2004. It is a sweeping testament to the 00:16:40.950 --> 00:16:43.419 power of a single piece of literature. It truly 00:16:43.419 --> 00:16:46.080 is. But before we conclude, this raises an important 00:16:46.080 --> 00:16:48.659 question. Okay. One that complicates this narrative 00:16:48.659 --> 00:16:51.340 of universal belovedness. I'm intrigued. Despite 00:16:51.340 --> 00:16:53.559 being arguably the most famous Canadian poem 00:16:53.559 --> 00:16:56.659 in existence, there is currently a quiet academic 00:16:56.659 --> 00:16:59.840 boycott of In Flanders Fields within literary 00:16:59.840 --> 00:17:03.350 circles. A boycott. It is difficult to imagine 00:17:03.350 --> 00:17:05.269 the poem that literally sits on the currency 00:17:05.269 --> 00:17:08.430 being actively ignored by the academic establishment. 00:17:08.670 --> 00:17:11.430 I know. But Professor Nancy Holmes from the University 00:17:11.430 --> 00:17:13.529 of British Columbia highlights that the poem 00:17:13.529 --> 00:17:16.250 is frequently skipped over by academics teaching 00:17:16.250 --> 00:17:19.210 Canadian literature. Why? She suggests that because 00:17:19.210 --> 00:17:21.809 of its deeply patriotic nature and its heavy 00:17:21.809 --> 00:17:24.890 historical use as a propaganda tool, Literary 00:17:24.890 --> 00:17:27.369 critics began viewing it as a national monument 00:17:27.369 --> 00:17:30.390 or a national anthem, rather than a living poem 00:17:30.390 --> 00:17:33.329 worthy of deep literary analysis. So it has essentially 00:17:33.329 --> 00:17:36.490 become too famous and too institutionalized to 00:17:36.490 --> 00:17:39.349 be studied purely as art anymore. Precisely. 00:17:39.670 --> 00:17:41.450 Furthermore, the poem is increasingly viewed 00:17:41.450 --> 00:17:44.450 by modern scholars as a bizarre anachronism. 00:17:44.569 --> 00:17:46.849 Anachronism. Yeah, McCray's words ask the reader 00:17:46.849 --> 00:17:49.650 to embrace glory and honor and to take up the 00:17:49.650 --> 00:17:52.660 quarrel with the foe. But history now remembers 00:17:52.660 --> 00:17:56.000 the First World War, not for glory, but for the 00:17:56.000 --> 00:17:58.759 futile, mechanized slaughter of trench warfare. 00:17:59.720 --> 00:18:02.099 Modern literature heavily favors poets like Wilfred 00:18:02.099 --> 00:18:05.160 Owen, who explicitly rejected the old lies of 00:18:05.160 --> 00:18:08.359 glorious combat. So McCrae's romanticized language 00:18:08.359 --> 00:18:11.900 completely clashes with our modern, cynical understanding 00:18:11.900 --> 00:18:15.750 of how horrific and senseless that specific conflict 00:18:15.750 --> 00:18:18.369 truly was. That tension between the Victorian 00:18:18.369 --> 00:18:20.809 ideals of the author and the grim reality of 00:18:20.809 --> 00:18:23.470 the history he lived through is a heavy concept 00:18:23.470 --> 00:18:25.869 to process. It really is. And that is exactly 00:18:25.869 --> 00:18:28.529 what I want to leave you, our listener, to mull 00:18:28.529 --> 00:18:31.529 over today. Think about that final paradox. When 00:18:31.529 --> 00:18:34.650 a poem becomes a sacred civic monument, when 00:18:34.650 --> 00:18:37.589 it becomes a highly effective political weapon, 00:18:37.950 --> 00:18:40.250 when it is literally printed on federal money, 00:18:40.529 --> 00:18:42.910 wait, no, printed on federal currency, does it 00:18:42.910 --> 00:18:45.079 permanently lose identity as a piece of art. 00:18:45.259 --> 00:18:47.000 That's the question. Does the towering myth of 00:18:47.000 --> 00:18:49.819 the poppy swallow the poetry entirely? Thank 00:18:49.819 --> 00:18:51.799 you for taking this journey with us and for joining 00:18:51.799 --> 00:18:52.960 us on this deep dive.