In Flanders Fields

“In Flanders Fields” is a lyric poem in the form of a rondeau, a fifteen-line poem that is built around the repetition of two rhyming sounds. In McCrae’s poem, the two rhymes are featured in the words “blow, row, below, ago, glow, foe, throw, glow” (Lines 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 10, 11, 14 respectively) and “sky, fly, lie, high, die” (Lines 3, 4, 8, 12, 13 respectively). The strict limitation of only two rhymes brings a sense of order to the structure of the poem, creating something solid and predictable in form while still alluding to the chaos and violence of warfare thematically. The poem’s rigid form also mirrors the order of the graveyard depicted in the fields, with the “crosses, row on row” (Line 2) bringing manmade order to the natural landscape of the fields through the creation of a cemetery for the veterans.

There is also an important refrain in the poem in the phrase “In Flanders fields,” which appears in each one of the poem’s three stanzas: “In Flanders fields, the poppies blow” (First stanza, Line 1); “now we lie / In Flanders fields” (Second stanza, Lines 8-9); and “We shall not sleep, though poppies grow / In Flanders fields” (Third stanza, Lines 14-15).