Analysis of In Flanders Fields

John McCrae 1872 (Guelph) – 1918 (Boulogne-sur-Mer)



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.


Scheme aabba aabC aabbaC
Poetic Form Rondeau 
Metre 01010101 01010111 111010001 01110101 11010101 11011101 1111111 10010111 0101 111010101 11110111 01111111 11111111 11111101 0101
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 496
Words 99
Sentences 5
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 5, 4, 6
Lines Amount 15
Letters per line (avg) 26
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 130
Words per stanza (avg) 32
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Submitted on August 03, 2020

Modified on March 19, 2023

29 sec read
28

John McCrae

Lieutenant Colonel John Alexander McCrae, MD was a Canadian poet, physician, author, artist and soldier during World War I, and a surgeon during the Second Battle of Ypres, in Belgium. more…

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