Poppies

by Richard Reeve

Title

Poppies

Artist

Richard Reeve

Medium

Photograph - Photograph

Description

Poppies - Richard Reeve

The common or field poppy (Papaver rhoeas) is a beautiful wild flower. When I was growing up they were usually sprayed out of existence in the farmland, but now they are tolerated more.
This meadow near Amesbury (Stonehenge) in the UK was filled with them. They always remind me of the WWI poem, In Flanders' Fields, by John McCrae, hence my composition focuses on the barbed wired fence that surrounded the meadow... Lest We Forget

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.

- John McCrae, 1915

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July 12th, 2017

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