November 12, 2010

• In Memory

  In Memory

  This year on xanga, as in most other years, there have been quite a few remembrance/veterans/armistice/poppy day posts. And in a lot of these, the poem In Flanders Fields is quoted. In fact, I think I’ve seen two posts on the history of the poem itself. That’s understandable, I suppose, given the apparently immense popularity of the poem, but I can’t help but wonder if it’s the best way to remember the war, or the soldiers who fought in it.

  

  The poem is inherently anathema to the message of peace proclaimed by most people on remembrance/veterans/armistice/poppy day. “Never forget” is intended to a) honour memory and b) prevent recurrence. So then why do we quote a poem which dedicates a third of its length to the advocation of retribution? That’s hardly in keeping with the message of peace. And yes, I suppose you can interpret “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” as a request to pass on memory, not anger and conflict, but I think “Take up our quarrel with the foe:” is pretty unambiguous.

  You know, it’s said that when Hitler visited the Allied war memorials in France after the defeat of that country in 1940, that one of the only sites he allowed to remain standing was the Canadian war memorial at Vimy ridge, because it alone did not glorify war. While the monuments of the British and the French exclaimed their martial prowess, the humble Canadian beacon simply mourned. Mother Canada looked across the plains and wept, mourned the foolishness of war, the loss of her sons, the destruction of a generation. I’m not sure if that’s true or not, but I don’t think In Flanders Fields is in keeping with that tradition. I think it’s time for another poem to honour and remember our dead.

  • 7:15 am
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