The Kiwi Gazette

Page 3

The Story of the Poppy

After World War I, the red poppy became a symbol of ANZAC Day in New Zealand, saluting the memory of the courageous soldiers who made such sacrifices in the fight for freedom. The poppies grew wild through the fields of Europe and, it is said, the soldiers serving there associated the flowers with fellow men who had fallen during battle. Another wartime poppy story states that the soil churned up from the many battles in the area exposed the flowers' seeds and 

In 1921, six years after the Battle at Gallilopi, a group of widows of French servicemen visited the British Commander in Chief. They had with them buttonhole poppies they had made in France with the idea they might be sold to raise funds for the families who were in dire straits as a result of the war. The first poppies were sold in London and, being a great success, the idea was sent on to Australia and New Zealand.

The poppy was made famous in a poem by Colonel John McRae entitled, In Flanders Fields. He was a Canadian doctor who volunteered to serve in France and wrote the piece while on the Flanders battlefields:

In Flanders fields the poppies grow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place, and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard among 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.

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