Pennyrick
New member
This week we observe Veterans Day here in the USA. Since I was raised in Canada I remember this as Remembrance or Armistice Day. It dates back to 1918 when, on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month World War One ended and the Armistice was signed. In 1926 the United States also began to recognize this day but in 1954 Congress changed it to Veterans Day as a way to honor Veterans from all wars.
As a child I learned the words to the poem, In Flanders Fields, written by Canadian Military doctor, Major John McCrae. McCrae wrote the poem during the battle of Ypres in May of 1915 when a young Canadian artillery officer, Lieutenant Alexis Helmer was killed by a German shell.
Because the poem cites …… in Flanders Fields, the poppies grow, beneath the crosses row on row…..the day is also known as ‘Poppy Day’ in Canada and other parts of the world.
I learned another poem as a child that became my favorite. It was written in 1941 by RCAF pilot, John Gillespie Magee who died at age 19 when his Spitfire crashed over England. Magee had written the poem just weeks before he died.
High Flight
"Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of — wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,
I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air....
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace.
Where never lark, or even eagle flew —
And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
- Put out my hand, and touched the face of God."
As a child I learned the words to the poem, In Flanders Fields, written by Canadian Military doctor, Major John McCrae. McCrae wrote the poem during the battle of Ypres in May of 1915 when a young Canadian artillery officer, Lieutenant Alexis Helmer was killed by a German shell.
Because the poem cites …… in Flanders Fields, the poppies grow, beneath the crosses row on row…..the day is also known as ‘Poppy Day’ in Canada and other parts of the world.
I learned another poem as a child that became my favorite. It was written in 1941 by RCAF pilot, John Gillespie Magee who died at age 19 when his Spitfire crashed over England. Magee had written the poem just weeks before he died.
High Flight
"Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of — wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,
I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air....
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace.
Where never lark, or even eagle flew —
And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
- Put out my hand, and touched the face of God."
