This morning’s post[s] stirred several compelling responses. Here they are:
1) One of our readers from the Law School wrote to ask why I had not included John McCrae’s flint-hard voice coming out of the brutal violences of World War I, especially, he observed, since 2014 is the 100th anniversary of that many with long memories call “The Great War.”
2) Another reader, this one a close friend, sent me a YouTube clip of a 1942 BBC recording “Nightingale Sings as RAF Bombers Fly” You have to listen in a couple minutes before the bombers enter the sound field.
Thank you to both readers.
john sj
Today’s 3rd Post
by John McCrae, 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.
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.