With 2015 now begun, looking ahead gives
both casual and professional history enthusiasts a great many centennial
anniversaries to be observed and studied in the next twelve months. 1915 was a year in which so many aspects of
the Great War were defined. The futility
of the deadlock on the Western Front in collaboration with the failure to open
a decisive campaign elsewhere would inspire a deeper coordination and
cooperation between allies; resolving to defeat the main enemy in the main
theatre. Germany’s program of
unrestricted submarine warfare, a like wise attempt to produce a strategic
rather than tactical victory similarly would fail. It was suspended to ease diplomatic strain
with the erstwhile neutral industrial powerhouse of the United States. Russia’s poor performance in battle and
increased grievance among its public began the simmering of an explosive and
world changing revolution to take place within the next two years. On one afternoon in late April of 1915, with
winds in the right direction, German engineers opened valves on cylinders of
chlorine and brought the war into a new age of terror.
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Within the unfolding battle- known to
history as the 2nd Battle of Ypres- a Canadian surgeon would quickly
put down fifteen lines of verse which have since become the most well known
poem to come from the events of the war.
Considering the reputation WWI has for evocative poetry, it is saying a
lot about the message of this particular piece that it stands alone in a
fertile body of works from some of the highest regarded names in Twentieth
Century English literature.
Assigned to 1st Brigade,
Canadian Field Artillery, John McCrae, a Major and Brigade Surgeon was present
for the 17 days of 2nd Ypres, during which half of his brigade died.[1]
His experience is described in a letter
“More than any other
conflict,” writes Michael Duffy in an article at firstworldwar.com, “the Great
War inspired writers of all generations and classes, most notably among
combatants.”[3] The link between verse and the war is so
ingrained that the proliferation of poetry can even be satirised as in the BBC
Television series “Blackadder Goes Forth” by Ben Elton.
It is reasonable to ask why this
may be so. A short study conducted in
2013 by University of Exeter Professor Adam Zeman, a cognitive neurologist
found “more emotionally charged writing aroused several of the regions in the
brain which respond to music.”[4] Previous work indicated that these areas, in
the right hemisphere of the brain were responsible for the physical responses
that music can invoke. It might not be too far to assume that the writing of
poetry can become as much of a therapeutic release as the University of Exeter
has shown the reading of it can be. Jon Stallworthy, author of “The
Oxford Book of War Poetry” begins the book by evoking the emotive force inherit
to: "'POETRY', Wordsworth reminds
us, 'is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings', and there can be no
area of human experience that has generated a wider range of powerful feelings
than war: hope and fear; exhilaration and humiliation; hatred - not only for
the enemy, but also for generals, politicians, and war-profiteers; love - for
fellow soldiers, for women and children left behind, for country (often) and
cause (occasionally)."[5]
Perhaps
it is very telling that two poets whose work would largely invoke the sense of
futility of war in the post-war years, Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen, had
both been hospitalized for nervous disorders we might see as PTSD in
contemporary medicine. In fact, it was
during this period that the two men collaborated on poetic works.(fww.com) Sassoon would survive the war, publishing “anti-war
rhetoric” in poetry and prose.[6] Owen
was killed in action on 4 November 1918.
Stephen Cloutier, writing on early editions of Owens’s work makes
arguments that the message of poetry can be carefully determined through how
editions are presented. Cloutier cites
that a post-war volume is decidedly more anti-war and anti-establishment
(Sassoon being the editor in question), while a newer edition published in the
1960’s seems to lean towards the notion of there being a certain necessity to
war, despite its terribleness.[7]
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McCrae’s work, first
published in “Punch” Magazine, December 1915 captured immediately a sentiment
which could not only be understood by the public, but the appeal from the dead
to the living to “Take up our quarrel with the foe” carried such a broad plea
that “(t)he poem made McCrae’s name, usually misspelled,
known throughout the British empire and later in the United States. The
ferocious third verse of the poem was used extensively to further the war
effort, including the campaign to bring the United States into the war, as well
as in recruiting, raising money, comforting widows, and attacking both
pacifists and profiteers.”[8]
Within those lines is where this project takes
its name. It states the belief that
perpetuating history- the lessons and growth which have come as a result of the
war- is a way in which the present can continue to show gratitude to those who
sacrificed their lives.
A bitter irony is that McCrae would be one of the
“failing hands” he wrote about. An index
card tucked into his service records reports “died on 28th (January
1918), suppurative meningitis secondary to acute lobar pneumonia.”[9]
He is buried at Wimereux Communal Cemetery, not far from the hospital he served
at.[10]
Since the war, his poem has become so
identified with, and the deaths caused by it, that it is now a traditional part
of remembrance ceremonies throughout the world.
McCrae’s message that we not forget is now part of the reason why we do
not forget.
To the memory of McCrae and
his literary contribution a campaign is underway to raise a statue to his
memory. Lt General, the Honourable Roméo
Dallaire says of this notion: “I would like to
publicly support the John McCrae Statue Campaign. Lieutenant-Colonel John
McCrae was a gunner, a doctor and a poet. His poem “In Flanders Fields”
is perhaps the best known poem in the world. The Royal Regiment of
Canadian Artillery, supported by the Royal Canadian Medical Service, is
honouring a great Canadian with this project to raise a statue in his
honour. The graphic clarity of his images still captures our imagination
– and we Remember. It is long overdue and this project has my support.”[11] The campaign organisers state “To
date, we have raised $252,000 in total for the McCrae Statue, online through
Indiegogo, through our website and all other donations. We are over 70% of the
way to our overall target of $350,000. Recently,
we have received a number of generous gifts off-line outside of our
crowdfunding campaign. These include: The Canadian Medical Association $10,000;
The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons $10,000; Dominion Command, Royal
Canadian Legion $5,000, in addition to the numerous donations we are receiving
from individual Branches across Canada; 7 Toronto Regiment, Royal Canadian
Artillery $5,000.”[12]
For further information, please visit
the project’s website at http://www.lcolmccraestatue.ca/ My thanks to all who have made this last year the most successful one yet for my writing. Having enjoyed my holidays at the end of December, I now return to posting to this space regularly. I appreciate your patience in between my last update and now. As always, this project can be followed via Facebook and Twitter. Comments, questions and suggestions are always welcome,
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