The poppy.
The poppy became a symbol of remembrance for the victims of war. This is due to the war poem ‘In Flanders Fields’, written in 1915 by John McCrae, a Canadian military physician, (the title of which is mentioned in the first line of the teaser).
Poppy seeds can lay dormant, deep in the soil for hundreds of years, but the violent shelling, on the Western Front during the First World War, would have unearthed them. This led to the blood and bodies being watched over by tall red flowers, dancing in the wind.
The artificial poppies sold today, to raise money for war veterans, were the idea of Madame Guerin, a Frenchwoman, mentioned in the title. Other colours of poppy are now sold as well as the original red, normally as a statement of peaceful resolution to conflict. However, it is predominantly Madame Guerin’s poppy seen across much of the World and in military cemeteries.
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