Remembrance Day

In Flander's Fields

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid 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 Flander's 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, tho poppies grow
In Flander's fields.

Liet. -Col. John McCrae


Least we forget

 

They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemm
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them
We will remember them

 

Futility

Move him into the sun--
Gently its touch awoke him once,
At home, whispering of fields unsown.
Always it woke him, even in France,
Until this morning and this snow.
If anything might rouse him now
The kind old sun will know.

Think how it wakes the seeds,--
Woke, once, the clays of a cold star.
Are limbs, so dear-achieved, are sides,
Full-nerved-- still warm,-- too hard to stir?
Was it for this the clay grew tall?
-- O what made fatuous sunbeams toil
To break earth's sleep at all?

Wilfred Owen :cry:

 

I remember having ti disect these poems for literature classes.And i always don't do well.hahah. Oops

 

Not the place to try to be funny Kaiser. :angry:


In honour of the fallen.

"We will remember them."

 

Anthem for Doomed Youth

What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?
-Only the monstrous anger of the guns.
Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle
Can patter out their hasty orisons.
No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells;
Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs,-
The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;
And bugles calling for them from sad shires.


What candles may be held to speed them all?
Not in the hands of boys but in their eyes
Shall shine the holy glimmers of good-byes.
The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall;
Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds,
And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.

Wilfred Owen

I have been moved to tears this year.

 

Just the last verse of Dulce et Decorum est:

If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues, –
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.

Wilfred Owen 1893-1918

 

This pic makes me always sad, it´s the Madonna von Stalingrad printed by a german officer on christmas 1942 on the backside of a russian map.

Light, Life, Love ...Christmas in the fortress Stalingrad 1942

I don´t know if this would be the right thing to hounour the fallen, but I think this symbol of hope, is also a symbol for those who sacrificed so much, for those who believed in doing the right and those who fought for the right thing.

 

A thousand apologies,old chap!

 

I was pleased today when our company decided to honour the 2 minute silence in all it's 3,000+ outlets in the U.K today. I was even more gratified when all the customers in my branch honoured the fallen at 11.00 am this morning, with an inpeccable silence.

 

similar thing happened at school the whole place went silent for 5 minutes, except my old latin teacher(ive had the years that ive had him as a teacher he never honoured the dead, i say it is a disgrace for a person who is ment to be a role model in school to do such a thing.

 

I wish my school cared about anything, we didnt even talk about it just had a huge test in science its kinda sad my school cant take at least a minute.

 

our school had a minute

 

Coming from Asia and pardoning my ignorance,care to shed some light on Remembrance day?

 

On November 11th 1918 the armistice was signed which ended the First World War. Estimates of the total amount of deaths caused by this war range from 8 to 11 million, almost all of them soldiers (practically no civilians). By all measures it was the cruelest war to date.

 

Oh and i was wondering why did the local media not menton anything,so i guess it's more of a Europe/America thing.

Nevertheless,yea i do agree that they were brave for their "over the top!" braveness.It would have seem silly now but yet it was pure courage.

I am thankful

 

It is mostly a France/Britain thing I'm afraid. Countries like the Netherlands that remained neutral during the conflict seem not to think it necessary to remeber this war.

 

oh i am sorry to hear that.But i guess that's understandable since the war didn't implicated them.But i think other countries should be thankful(in Europe) because things migh turn out really differently.Imagine having a Kaiser in Germany now!

 

Besides Britain and France, 11th november also is official rememberance day in Belgium, the US and many Commonwealth countries.
In Poland it is independence as well as rememberance day.

 

Rememberance Day in the U.K remembers the dead of all wars since WWI. But is most closely associated with the two WW's.