Gardens of Remembrance (Poppies for young men)

Poppies field. From http://witchdoctor.files.wordpress.com/2008/01/poppiesfied2.jpg

The flowers that better represent the battles and dead soldiers are  forget-me-not, roses and poppies.

The Flanders poppy is known to be the emblem of two world wars, and long before this, the field of the battle of Neerwinden or Landen (1693) was covered the following year by a scarlet stream of poppies: the soil  had been fertilized with the 20,000 soldiers’ corps.

“ 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” .

(Author Colonel John McCrae 1872-1918)

Poppies field. From http://witchdoctor.files.wordpress.com/2008/01/poppiesfied2.jpg

In the Autumn of 1919, Newman Flower went out to the battlefields to gather seeds from the wild flowers that were already growing on the stricken fields. He collected poppy seeds from Fricourt and of blue chicory among others, labeled them and brought them home. He sowed his war seeds in his garden, in the spring of 1920. Eventually, an article in a national newspaper appeared telling the story of the garden of remembrance, and since then, he received letters from relatives of men who had died in the war, and to these he sent small packets of seeds, so that Gardens of Remembrance might be started in many parts of the world.

Croisade des enfantes. http://pages.usherbrooke.ca/croisades/big_images/c_croisade_des_enfants1.jpg

Children’s crusade. https://trcs.wikispaces.com/file/view/CHILDRENS_CRUSADA.jpg/30277249/CHILDRENS_CRUSADA.jpg

In 1985 Sting wrote a beautiful song, dedicated to the two groups of children –one from France, the other from Germany- who set off on a crusade to the Holy Land. The event took place after the fourth crusade, in 1212.

In an interview disc from 1985, Sting said: "'Children's Crusade' is a fairly bitter song. The original children's crusade took place in the 11th century and two monks had the great idea of recruiting children from the streets of Europe and telling them that they were going to be an army to fight for Christ in Palestine, and to fight the Saracens. The intention all along was to sell them as slaves in Africa. And that's what they did; they recruited thousands of children and sold them as slaves. It seemed a very wonderful symbol of cynicism and the perversion of youthful idealism. Having thought about this for awhile, I realized this wasn't the only children's crusade in history - there have been many. So I look for examples. And the examples in the song I used are the first World War, where millions of young men, Germans, French, English, were killed for reasons that even today we don't understand. A whole generation was wiped out in a very foolish and cynical manner. And then I looked around today for an example of a children's crusade and I think the heroin industry is a good example, where businessmen are making vast fortunes by selling drugs to people who can't deal with them. …..This too is a children's crusade, and the same people who sold slaves in the 11th century, and the same people who sent young men to their deaths in the first World War are the same people selling these drugs. The song is really wishing them to hell." (from http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=8203)

The Flower of England is a metaphor for England's youth, and it is represented with the poppies, which also are the source of Opium.

"Children's Crusade" by Sting
Young men, soldiers, Nineteen Fourteen
Marching through countries they'd never seen
Virgins with rifles, a game of charades
All for a Children's Crusade

Pawns in the game are not victims of chance
Strewn on the fields of Belgium and France
Poppies for young men, death's bitter trade
All of those young lives betrayed

The children of England would never be slaves
They're trapped on the wire and dying in waves
The flower of England face down in the mud
And stained in the blood of a whole generation

Corpulent generals safe behind lines
History's lessons drowned in red wine
Poppies for young men, death's bitter trade
All of those young lives betrayed
All for a Children's Crusade

The children of England would never be slaves
They're trapped on the wire and dying in waves
The flower of England face down in the mud
And stained in the blood of a whole generation

Midnight in Soho, Nineteen Eighty-four
Fixing in doorways, opium slaves
Poppies for young men, such bitter trade
All of those young lives betrayed
All for a Children's Crusade 

Enjoy the video, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6pQ8qKg-Ag&feature=related

Reference.

Lesley Gordon. Green Magic. Flowers Plants and Herbs in Lore and Legend.