Why the poppies at the Tower have moved the nation (Brits go crazy over massive poppy display)

The Daily Express ^ | Sat, November 8, 2014 | Stephen Pollard

[Fenhalls555]

It’s rare that any piece of art – let alone modern art – captures the imagination, and the hearts, of the entire nation.

In my near 50 years on the planet I can’t think of anything that has come close to the impact of the sea of poppies at the Tower of london.

Earlier this week I saw for myself the astonishing spectacle of another sea – the sea of men, women, boys and girls who have queued up in vast numbers to see the poppies with their own eyes.

But even the majority of us who have seen the poppies only on TV and in the newspapers are awed by the majesty and the beauty.

Tom Piper, the theatrical set designer behind the genius idea – it’s an over- used word but surely merited – has managed something astonishing. He has created an artwork that is both breathtakingly beautiful and redolent with meaning.

So much modern art – defined even its loosest sense – is ugly. Many of today’s artists appear to think they are worthy of the label only if they shock the rest of us or create something that appals our innate sense of beauty.

[the scotsman]

A generation of Scots (whose losses per head were the worst in the UK), Welsh, Irish both Catholic and Protestant, Indians, Aussies, Kiwis, Canadians, S Africans, black Africans. To name just a few. The Commonwealth and Empire rallied to the mother country and suffered accordingly.

[the scotsman]

Whilst you are correct about the British losing their stiff upper lip, you are wrong to see this as a modern example, this isn’t mawkish and fits in with the last 96 yrs of commemorations. Its dignified.

[the scotsman]

Given he was Canadian, and not British, we don’t know what he would have thought exactly.

[the scotsman]

One assumes the flow of blood, as on on a battlefield.

[the scotsman]

As will I, both the poppy and going to an Act of Rememberence (at a tiny village memorial). Only severe illness has and will ever stop me going to a commemoration.

[dfwgator]

Yes, I have posted that several times, brings a tear every time, even with some of the funny remarks before they go over. Very well done and powerful.

[dfwgator]

WWI was more devastating to Britain than even WWII, Britain never fully recovered from that first war. So many of her best sons lost, and for what?

In fact, the same goes for all of Europe, be it France, Germany or Russia. You lose the best of a generation’s manhood, it’s difficult to ever fully recover.

[Amity]

Brilliant. Very moving, and I also like the fact that the poppies are to be sold to support charities.

You can get poppies in the States for Memorial Day; same practice, inspired by the same poem. Well, the same if the most common ones in Great Britain are made of paper. ;)

[RegulatorCountry]

There’s a religious element behind the mockery. Anything English gets it almost as badly as their apparent arch-nemesis Martin Luther.

[dfwgator]

I find this one of the most moving tributes to WWI, written by none other than Lemmy of Motorhead.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuRxjjcPgOo

[Zhang Fei]

Given he was Canadian, and not British, we don’t know what he would have thought exactly.

Canada was a Dominion within the Empire. He could, in theory, have become PM (of Britain). Besides, until fairly recently, beginning with end of WWII, the non-US ABCA countries have traditionally thought of themselves at outposts of the Empire.

[Amity]

I think you have no appreciation or respect for the efforts of those in the past that we in the present benefit from. Whether that’s a more accurate assumption on my part than your belief that people who like this artwork are mopey and sentimental, I dunno. But at the moment, you’re not coming across as someone capable of deep thought or reflection, both of which this artwork invites.

I also question your understanding of the terms you keep flinging around. Sentimentality has traditionally meant nostalgia and self-indulgent mourning; sentimentality implies a preference for simple, uncomplicated emotion; the idea that most people in the UK look back on the loss of these men with nostalgia is ridiculous, and the idea that their feelings about their losses during WW I are simple and uncomplicated is equally unlikely.

[Zhang Fei]

There’s a religious element behind the mockery. Anything English gets it almost as badly as their apparent arch-nemesis Martin Luther.

That's not it. The ultimate point of McCrae's poem was that only victory would let the dead rest. Logic dictates that if the dead could speak, they would be mortified not only that WWI ended in a stalemate, but that the bloodletting continued in WWII and that the Empire dissolved altogether after that war. And to follow that up, a century later, someone put up - to a chorus of hosannas - hundreds of thousands of porcelain poppies so the nation could go on a crying jag.

[RegulatorCountry]

It may not be “it” in your particular instance, but it certainly is for most others making derogatory remarks. I say that as a frequent participant in the FR Religion Forum. I know the screen names and their religious affiliations.

[the scotsman]

I know. Bonar Law became British PM. I know the history. My point was that we cant know what he would have thought, he isn’t here. Maybe he would hate it, maybe he’d love it. IMO he would find it moving and a fine tribute to the men he fought with, both Canadian and British/Empire. But that’s just my opinion.

[mplsconservative]

I saw it this summer it was impressive.

Lucky you. I'm jealous. :)

[the scotsman]

Sorry, but I and most Brits at the moment do not find this as a work of cheap sentiment, in fact the opposite, which is why its caught the nation’s attention. Most British people find it an incredibly moving work.

With all due respect, you are not British, and therefore you do not grasp just how beloved and powerful the symbol of the poppy is to the British. It is almost a religious symbol to us.

Therefore, you will not grasp just how incredibly powerful and moving it is to us. You will not understand/grasp the power the poppy and this work and what it represents (literally a death for every poppy) to the British soul, individually and collectively.

[MEG33]

Freedom Isn't Free

In Flanders Fields
By: Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD

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.
~~~
Never Forget~Ever Honor

[thecodont]

The other day I saw a woman wearing a pretty ceramic poppy pin on the lapel of her jacket. I remarked on its attractiveness and said it was good she was wearing it in honor of Veterans’ Day.

She responded with a smile, “I’m British. We wear the poppy all month long, it’s a month of remembrance.” She then lifted the other lapel and showed me a smaller poppy pin, bright red, pinned to her dress.

“We wear one poppy for each war. The first war was fought for greed. The second war was fought for racism.”

[Scoutmaster]

Beautiful and very moving.

People tend to forget that WWI truly wiped out a generation of young men. I'll mock the French about surrendering in the face of military conflict, then I'll reflect upon the fact that more members of the French military died in WWI than the aggregate number of servicemen and -women who have died in all US military engagements since (and including) the Revolutionary War.

I'm not simply talking about the 'big' wars, such as the War of 1812, the Mexican War, the Civil War, WWI, etc. I'm including the Second Barbary War, the First Sumatran Expedition, the Rogue River Wars, the single casualty of the Sheepeater Indian War, the Sugar Point Pillager Band of Chippewa Indians War, the USS Liberty incident, the Berlin Blockade, the Invasion of Panama, Bosnia-Herzegovina, etc.

That's not to minimize the supreme sacrifice of our servicemen and women in the least.

But if the citizens of England, France, Germany, etc. wish to remember their WWI dead, I'm going to respect their acts and their emotions.