I hope you enjoy this, it certainly brought a lump to my throat.


WHO ARE THESE MEN ?

Who are these men who march so proud
Who quietly weep, eyes closed, heads bowed ?
These are the men who once were boys
Who missed out on youth and all of it's joys

Who are these men with aged faces
Who silently count the empty spaces ?
These are the men who gave their all
Who fought for their country for freedom and all.

Who are these men with sorrowed look
Who can still remember the lives that were took ?
These are the men who saw young men die
The price of peace is always high.

Who are these men who in the midst of pain
Whispered comfort to those they would not see again ?
These are the men whose hand held tomorrow
Who bought back our future with blood, tears and sorrow.

Who are these men who promise to keep
Alive in their hearts the ones God holds asleep ?
These are the men to whom I promise again
Veterans, my friends, I WILL REMEMBER THEM.


Written in 1996 by Jodie Johnson aged 11 years

Thanks. (It was Thursday here - what we used to call Armistice Day from WWI is now called Veteran's Day). I like the poem.

Sappers First!

Tom

Beautiful poem, Amazing that it was written by age 11! Thank you for taking the time to remember them online too. And make others not forget.

In Flander's fields the poppies blow
between the crosses, row on row
That mark our place, and in the sky
The Lark, still bravely signing "fly"
Scarce heard amid the guns below

We are the dead
Short days ago we lived
Felt dawn, saw sunsets glow
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie in Flander's fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you with failing hands we throw
The tourch, be yours to hold on high
For if you break faith with us who die
we shall not sleep
though poppies grow in Flander's fields

- McCrae

(And yes, I did it from Memory - so if I got the line breaks breaks or punctuation wrong, I applogize)

Well done for remembering it from the top of your head.

Which poem was written by a soldier during WWI which, after he completed it, died in battle?

There are probably a number of well-known poems written by soldiers who later died in battle.

John McCrae, the doctor who wrote "In Flanders Fields", didn't die in battle, he died of pneumonia and meningitis in January, 1918.

The poem "High Flight", which was adopted by the Royal Canadian Air Force as its official poem, was written by John Gillespie McGee (MacGee?). I had always assumed McGee was a Canadian because he flew with the RCAF, but the only mention of his nationality I could find on Google is "an American/British pilot who flew with the RCAF". He wasn't killed in battle either (and he was WWII, not WWI); he died in a training accident in Lincolnshire, England on December 11, 1941. (There were a lot of Americans, especially of British descent, who signed up with the Canadians prior to the US entry into the war; McGee was probably one of them.) The poem was found among his personal effects after his death, as part of a letter to his parents that he never got a chance to send.

Strangely enough, the Canadian Department of Veteran's Affairs website has a full write-up on John McCrae, but searches on "High Flight", "John Gillespie McGee", "Gillespie", "MacGee" and "McGee" turned up no mention of the latter poem or its author. <img src="/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" />