Cowboys and Jaguars both wore poppies on their uniforms for today's game in London.
Posted on 11/08/2014 8:08:29 AM PST by 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at express.co.uk ...
>>Please blubber away. I suspect McCrae would have found this navel-gazing quite foreign.<<
Please regale us with your deep knowledge of French culture, Chinese culture, Japanese culture and many other places you have never lived.
You sound like that leftist they described in the article.
You are a shame to yourself, FR and Conservatives.
The plain meaning of McCrae's verse is obvious for anyone to see. Now, you may think that tourism means you can superimpose whatever meaning you want onto the text. And that's your prerogative. I don't.
I think people who engage in this kind of mawkishness have certainly evolved from the British tradition of stoicism. That's progress for you. If "Let's all have a good cry" is what they need to do at this point, that's what they should do.
The thing is - as bloodlettings go, The Great War did not hold a candle to the English Civil War, which killed over 5% of the British population. But you don't see the current crop raising a big fuss over that.
Cowboys and Jaguars both wore poppies on their uniforms for today's game in London.
No point talking with the man. He’s a simpleton.
Actually I found the installation to be less than honoring. Blood gushing out of a window? and pouring around a moat.
Just doesn’t seem to provide the appropriate respect. Too focused on death and not on honor.
Pretty, but mawkish, in a “Let’s all have a good cry” kind of way. A lot like the 9/11 commemorations. The Brits are turning American.
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Agreed
To be fair, I have no idea what a good non-mawkish alternative might look like. I suppose you could put up the colors of all the units of the British Empire that fought and died. It might be good if they put up the names of all who died on a wall, Vietnam Memorial-like, so descendants and relatives have some personal incentive to think about the dearly departed in something other than abstract terms. I personally like the idea (probably offensive to Germans) of a 100 foot statue of Arthur Harris to remind Britain's enemies of what might happen to countries that go to war with it. It's probably in bad taste, but nobody would call it sentimental.
However, I suspect the alternatives I tossed out would probably fall flat with the British public. Ultimately, the response to these things probably varies with the zeitgeist. And the British state of mind today is very different from the one that prevailed in the 80's, let alone the turn of the 20th century British Empire.
the British state of mind today is very different from the one that prevailed in the 80’s, let alone the turn of the 20th century British Empire.
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I am afraid you are correct.
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.
That Picture captures the emotion perfectly.
Thank you. I used to by a poppie for each of my children when they were little. And then find the poem to read them. And tell them how their grandmother (born in 1917) could still recite the poem.
Although they are older now, I think I need to get back into that habit. And show this video to them.
Y’all grow ceramic poppies in Florida?
My mother used to buy those little paper poppies for us to wear too...
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