REMEMBRANCE

Steynonline ^ | 11 November 2010 | Mark Steyn

[JLS]

Ninety-one years ago, King George V proclaimed that "the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month" would be observed throughout the British Empire as a commemoration of the cessation of hostilities in the Great War a year earlier. It still is. Two years ago, just before Remembrance Day, I was in the Crown Colony of the Turks and Caicos Islands and saw the islanders' preparation for their ceremonies. In parts of Europe, Armistice Day is also observed. And of course it is Veterans Day in the United States. This essay, written for the first November 11th after September 11th, is excerpted from The Face Of The Tiger:

On CNN the other day, Larry King asked Tony Blair what it was he had in his buttonhole. It was a poppy — not a real poppy, but a stylized, mass-produced thing of red paper and green plastic that, as the Prime Minister explained, is worn in Britain and other Commonwealth countries in the days before November 11th. They’re sold in the street by aged members of the Royal British Legion to commemorate that moment 83 years ago today, when on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month the guns fell silent on the battlefields of Europe.

The poppy is an indelible image of that “war to end all wars”, summoned up by a Canadian, Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae, in a poem written in the trenches in May 1915:

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

[JLS]

A Steyn repeat from 11 Nov. 2001.

[JLS]

Steyn ping. Sorry for posting this a day late, I was busy and then was distracted.

Freepmail me, if you want on or off the Mark Steyn ping list.

[propertius]

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

[MaggieCarta]

Thanks, JLS! A nice Steyn repeat. Have a great weekend!

Obligatory Steyn pic.

[Shimmer1]

Not only a great writer, but eye candy, thanks

[MaggieCarta]

Absolutely not a problem. Thanks for the chance to stare at the picture again.

[concentric circles]

In Flanders Fields
By Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae 1872-1918

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 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.