Reference no: EM133582110

Taking an historical perspective means looking through the eyes of people who experiencedthe past. The historian uses evidence to do that. We know, for example, that in 1914. Canadianswere calling World War l the "Great War." This one little piece of evidence helps us see whatCanadians at that time thought aboutthe war.

Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae took the perspectiveofthe war dead in his poem"in Flanders Fields."A

doctor from Guelph, Ontario, McCrae had signed up

at the beginning ofthe war and worked as a field

surgeon right behind the frontlines.That meant he

saw the worstinjuries and many deaths.On May 2

1915.McCrae had been stationed near Ypres,Belgiumfor two weeks.While the Battle of Ypres raged, oneofMcCrae's closestfriends and former students,Lieutenant Alexis Helmer of Ottawa,was killed by an enemy shell.

The next day, after having buried his friend,McCraesat on the back of an ambulance,quietly thinking andjotting in a notebook. He wrote, he looked towards hisfriend's grave, and he wrote again.

McCrae did not write in his own voiceHe took theperspective of Helmer and the other soldiers who hadqiven their lives for their country. He wrote of whattheywould expect of their fellow soldiers and fellow citizensAfter two and a half more years of war, John McCraedied of pneumonia and meningitis in a war hospital.

Questions:

1. Take the historical perspective of McCrae by makinginferences about what he thought and felt aboutthe death of his friend Helmer. Consider what youknow of the relationship, the historical context ofthebattlefrontand what McCrae did in response.

2. How did Anqlophone Canadians in 1915in the midstof a warrespond to the third stanza? Howis yourresponse different as you read the poem in the 21stcentury? How does our awareness of this differencehelp us to understand the people of 1915?