Strong currents of nationalism led to rough seas for Ford's Peace Ship
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By the time of Ford's Peace Ship effort, many people in Europe - and to a growing extent in America - believed that the living owed it to the dead to carry on the war.
That belief gave rise to the most famous poem of World War I, "In Flanders Fields." Its author was John McCrae, a Canadian doctor who served on the western front. When the Peace Ship left New Jersey in 1915, there already had been two horrific battles for Ypres, in Flanders - a traditional English-speaking name for Belgium - including the war's first poison-gas attack.
McCrae died of pneumonia while on duty in 1918. The poem was not published until after the war, in 1919.
In Flanders Fields
By 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 amidst 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.
You can reach Jim Henry at autonews@crain.com.
