11 November
Remembrance Day poems
Remembrance Day, 11 November, marks the Armistice that ended the fighting of the First World War at 11 o'clock on the morning of 11 November 1918. Australians keep a minute's silence at 11 am for everyone who has died in war, and many wear a red poppy.
The poppy comes from the first poem below. Each poem opens on its own page, in large type, ready to print for a service, an assembly or a classroom.
In Flanders Fields
In Flanders fields the poppies blowBetween the crosses, row on row,That mark our place; and in the skyThe larks, still bravely singing, flyScarce heard amid the guns below.
John McCrae, a Canadian army doctor, wrote this in May 1915 after burying a friend. Its poppies became the flower of remembrance.
From In Flanders Fields, by John McCrae (1915).
The poems
- In Flanders FieldsJohn McCrae, 1915 · 0.5 min readThe whole poem, first printed in Punch in 1915.
- For the FallenLaurence Binyon, 1914 · 2 min readLaurence Binyon's poem, whose fourth stanza is the Ode read at services.
- To the Boys Who Took the CountC. J. Dennis, 1916 · 6.5 min readC. J. Dennis's tribute to the Australians who died, from The Moods of Ginger Mick.
- Digger SmithC. J. Dennis, 1918 · 6 min readA wounded digger turns up at his mate's family farm to keep a promise.
- Anthem for Doomed YouthWilfred Owen, 1920 · 1 min readWilfred Owen's sonnet for the soldiers who died, published in 1920 after his own death in 1918.
- RecessionalRudyard Kipling, 1897 · 1.5 min readRudyard Kipling's 1897 hymn, where the words “Lest we forget” come from.Has a content note
Every poem page has a Print button and text size controls.