OTTAWA – Canadians are celebrating Remembrance Day by remembering that time they read a poem once.
“Reading In Flanders Fields is a profoundly patriotic experience for Canadians,” said Dr. Julia Forman, Carleton University’s professor of Canadian literature. “The entire country unites around having read no other poems in their lifetime. This is one of the only times Canadians transcend their garrison mentality and unite around a common experience.”
Reading the poem is also a source of great pride.
“Every Remembrance Day is such a special day for me because I am reminded of how literary I am,” said a proud Ross Thomson, 42. “Reading and memorizing that poem in high school just made me feel confident that I’m cultured and deep, you know?”
Around the country, high school students are also writing their analyses of the national poem.
“I like how the poem starts with its title. It’s like self referential or something, and easy to remember,” writes grade 12 English student George McCrae. “The only thing I don’t get is how the poem was written. It says ‘we are the dead’ was the poet a zombie or something?”
The overwhelming prevalence of the pride and regard citizens have for the poem and no others demonstrates that Canadians have caught the torch from falling hands and hold it high in honour and in remembrance of those that have passed and now sleep beneath growing poppies.
