Discussion Topic
The dominant emotion and tone in John McCrae's poem "In Flanders Fields"
Summary:
The dominant emotion and tone in John McCrae's poem "In Flanders Fields" are somber and reflective. The poem mourns the loss of soldiers in World War I while also conveying a sense of duty to continue their fight, blending sorrow with a call to action.
What is the dominant emotion in John McCrae's poem "In Flanders Field"?
John McCrae's poem "In Flanders Fields" is one of the most famous poems of the First World War, and its predominant theme is the nobility of sacrifice. Written after the Second Battle of Ypres in early 1915, it quickly became popularized in pro-war propaganda literature in both the United Kingdom and McCrae's own native Canada. The imagery of poppies came to symbolize the lives lost in war—a symbolism still in place today in the United Kingdom and many Commonwealth countries, where red poppies are worn for Remembrance Day (November 11th), commemorating the end of the First World War, and wreaths of red poppies are placed on war memorials throughout the country in honor of the fallen.
McCrae's poem has been co-opted in the service of patriotic feeling, and a whole tradition of remembrance has sprung up based on his words:
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To...
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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.
There is no suggestion here of the ugly realities of the war—realities with which McCrae, a field medic, was painfully familiar. Instead, the reader views the situation from the perspective of the "larks, still bravely singing," far above the noise and horror, removed from the immediate facts to a place where theoretical "torches" can be passed from the dead to the living, and the entire brutal exercise can still be held to have meaning and purpose.
I would say that the dominant emotion here is patriotism. This is not one of the WWI poems like those of Owen that talk about how terrible the war was. This is a poem that asserts that the war was important and that the dead demand that the living continue the fight.
We can see this very clearly in the last stanza. The speaker tells the living that they must take up the torch that is being thrown to them. The dead will not lie easy unless the living keep fighting against the foe who killed them.
This is why I call this a patriotic poem -- its main point is that the living must continue fighting. This tells us that the war has an important point and that the living must continue fighting for that cause.
What word best describes the tone of John McCrae's poem, "In Flanders Fields"?
Tone is the poet’s attitude toward a subject.
The poem “In Flanders Fields” is about World War I. There are several different ways that I could describe this tone. For example, it could be pleading. I suggest pleading because the speakers are the dead soldiers, and they say “Take up our quarrel with the foe:/To you from failing hands we throw/ The torch” and this means they are passing the responsibility on, and want the reader to pick it up and fight their fight for them or they “shall not sleep.” This means they will not rest in peace unless they are avenged, so you might also consider the tone vengeful. I do not see a lot of bitter words though, most of them are melancholy and reminiscent, two other tone words you could use for the same reasons.