Monday, July 09, 2018

Doughboy Statue in Hell's Kitchenn


Ed and I walked to lunch yesterday (at a rooftop Mexican place - very nice) and on the way back passed this statue.

It is of a Doughboy, the stereotypical US Army Recruit sent to Belgium during WWI. In his hands are poppies from Flanders Field, and the inscription echoes back to that poem.


The red poppies are emblematic of the war because they only grow on land that has been disrupted - that causes the flowers to seed. Well, after the battle of Flanders Field the next years the ground was covered in red poppies. That is why the Brits where red poppies on memorial day.



This statue is from the Belgium government after the war. There were (are?) about 9 scattered about the city. I didn't know that.

Here is the poem that the base refers to:

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.