[Vwoolf] Poppycock

[Stuart N. Clarke]

The Royal British Legion’s annual Poppy Appeal runs from Thursday 26 October 2017. This year, the Legion is once again calling on the nation to ‘rethink Remembrance’, encouraging people to remember the fallen without forgetting the living.
  a.. The red poppy is a universal symbol of Remembrance and hope – hope for our beneficiaries to overcome their difficulties with our help, and hope for a peaceful world.

This year, the British Legion is recreating the famous poem in poppies:

In Flanders Fields – copy split by location

      London, Royal Hospital Chelsea 
     In Flanders fields the poppies blow 
      Between the crosses, row on row,
     
      Sage Gateshead 
     That mark our place; and in the sky 
      The larks, still bravely singing, fly
     
      Dover, White Cliffs 
     Scarce heard amid the guns below. 
      We are the Dead. Short days ago

      We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
     
      Dunkirk Beach 
     Loved and were loved, and now we lie, 
      In Flanders fields.
     
      Cardiff, Cardiff Bay 
     Take up our quarrel with the foe: 
      To you from failing hands we throw
     
      National Memorial Arboretum 
     The torch; be yours to hold it high. 
      If ye break faith with us who die
     
      Salford Quays 
     We shall not sleep, though poppies grow 
      In Flanders fields.
     

http://armedforcescharities.org.uk/news/6344-poppy-appeal-2017the-royal-british-legion-introduces-a-modern-take-on-in-flanders-fields-for-2017-poppy-appeal

Pictures here:
https://www.bing.com/news/search?q=%22In+Flanders+Fields%22+Royal+British+Legion&qpvt=%22in+flanders+fields%22+royal+british+legion&FORM=NWRFSH

Paul Fussell analyses the poem in his “The Great War and Modern Memory” (pp. 248-9):

“things fall apart two-thirds through . . . We finally see – and with a shock – what the last six lines really are: they are a propaganda argument – words like *vicious* and *stupid* would not seem to go too far – against a negotiated peace”.

What now the Royal British Legion’s “hope for a peaceful world”?

Stuart



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