John McCrae wrote the 1915 poem “In Flanders Fields,” which helped inspire remembrance poppies.
McCrae was a Canadian physician and lieutenant colonel serving with the Canadian Expeditionary Force during the First World War. He wrote the poem after the Second Battle of Ypres, in Belgium, where poppies grew among the graves of fallen soldiers. The poem is written from the imagined perspective of the dead.
Its opening image of poppies in Flanders fields became strongly associated with remembrance after the war. American humanitarian Moina Michael read the poem and promoted the use of red silk poppies to honor the dead and raise money for disabled veterans. The idea later spread internationally.
The poem is linked to Memorial Day symbolism, but its immediate setting was the First World War rather than the American Civil War, from which the U.S. Decoration Day tradition emerged.