Poetry

In Flanders Fields
By John McCrae,  May 1915

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.

Personal Reflection:

...In war, courage is a very difficult phrase to attach a simple definition to. It describes an emotion or feeling of fear and bravery in the mind, heart, and soul of soldiers. Witnessing a death in front of your face can be very heart breaking. Inspired by the sight, and by the memories of the previous days of vicious fighting, McCrae began to write down the words that had suddenly appeared in his mind. John McCrae was a physician as well as a Lieutenant Colonel in World War 1. He went to the war without illusions. His poem shows a change of attitude. It uses emotional power to explain how he is feeling. He justifies the wretched sacrifice by explaining that it is necessary to carry on and win the war, or the sacrifice will be in vain. Each image accurately triggers off its expected emotional response. The red flowers, of traditional pastoral elegy and the crosses, which suggest the idea of Calvary and sacrifice. Physical courage portrays this. Let these true accounts of how ordinary people, people just like us, find within their heart the ability to reach beyond their limits and do the unthinkable; inspire us to strive for dreams and goals unthinkable. "Courage is not defined by those who fought and did not fall, but those who fought, fell and rose again"... 
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If 

By: Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son! 

Persona Reflection:

...Rudyard Kipling was a famous English writer in the 1800's. He was born in India, but had a British background. Having the guts to take chances, and if it goes wrong, the strength to accept and learn from those mistakes without complaint is very powerful. He paints a very human picture. "If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew, To serve your turn long after they are gone, And so hold on when there is nothing in you, Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on" Here he speaks of strength and bravery and will; qualities that should be but sadly are nor present in all women. I think that his career in the British Army, that took him to India, was quite imperative to the formation of his character. The fact that he says this quote speaks to me of battlefields, and having already given all you have got, only to call on your own reserves to give even more and hold on longer. I think good men were highly regarded in this era. Kipling explained this so succinctly just what it was that made men. Kipling's work is quite like the man he paints in this piece, honest and true, with little in the way of hidden depths of courage...