In Flanders Fields by John McCrae is a haunting poem about those who have sacrificed their lives for war. in the format of a French rondeau. A rondeau consists of three stanzas with fifteen lines. From the beginning the poem already evokes images of bloodstained fields and bodies littering the ground.
Poetic devices
This poem incorporates makes use symbolism in order to enhance the story. For example, the dead soldiers acted as a symbol of hope. After their deaths, beautiful poppies sprouted and grew into flowers that inspire the living. Poppies are associated with Remembrance Day in the real And in line 4: “The larks, still bravely singing, fly, Scarce heard amid the guns below.” the larks are civilians who continue with life despite the chaos around them.
Repetition is used throughout the poem, with “In Flanders Fields” being repeated at the end of each stanza. The deceased soldiers buried in Flanders Fields speak in a mournful tone, for example in the line "We are the Dead”. This indicates that they died with regrets. The poem is written in first person, The soldiers were young and in their prime, going to fight a war for their homeland. Soon they were killed in battle and left everything behind.
Themes
One of the themes covered is the will to continue living. The poem reads: “The larks, still bravely singing, fly”. Larks are traditional symbols of beauty and freedom. In this case, larks were used to symbolise all who do not fight in the war, as they continue living their lives even with the constant threat of attack.
The last theme explored is the passing on of responsibility. Illustrated by the dead soldiers passing on the duty to fight the war. The passing on of duty is symbolized by the torch being passed on, similar to how things are passed during a relay. And this cycle of torch-passing will continue until the war is won.
So, has anyone passed a torch onto you? Or are you passing a torch onto someone else?
From the first glance, I like your title as it is rather evoking and you have included several blogging elements, such as short paragraphs, bolding and a lead image. In the first paragraph, just be aware of a few punctuation errors. I definitely agree with your analysis of the themes, as the poem very powerfully portrays the theme of passing on “the torch”. I also really like how you used your last sentence as a question about the theme to leave the reader thinking deeper. It is very good how you explained the genre or form of the poem, which adds to the background and setting knowledge. To improve I think you could have added more about different literary devices and maybe a bit on how the themes are portrayed or shown. -Charlotte
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