Red poppies: A powerful symbol of resilience

I have never seen fields so blanketed with poppies as I have in Poland.

The national flower of Poland, the field (or corn) poppy symbolizes not only remembrance but resilience. This is not only true for Poland, but for the US (the poppy is also a symbol of the American Legion) and much of Europe as well.

Poppies are self-seeding annuals that can grow in the most surprising conditions. During World War I, as fields throughout Europe were trampled and bombed during battle, the poppies and other plant life disappeared. When the war ended and the land recovered, the poppies came back in full force, becoming a symbol of endurance.

The flower became a symbol of remembrance for the British Commonwealth as a result of John McCrae’s famous poem, In Flanders Fields. In his piece, McCrae, poet, soldier, and physician, memorializes those who lost their lives at the Battle of Ypres, Belgium, and notes the poppies that grew quickly amid the graves of the fallen.

The most well known Polish piece featuring the field poppy is the military song Czerwone maki na Monte Cassino (The Red Poppies on Monte Cassino), composed by Alfred Schütz and written by Polish poet, songwriter, and soldier Feliks Konarski during the Battle of Monte Cassino in 1944.

The Battle of Monte Cassino was a series of four battles fought between the Allies and Nazi Germany during World War II. The Allies sought to capture the main Nazi defensive line, the Gustav Line, which ran from the Tyrrhenian to the Adriatic Seas and included Monte Cassino, a 1,706 foot tall hill that provided both a strategic lookout point and challenging terrain.

On the side of the Allies, the Battle was conducted by troops from France, the United States, New Zealand, India, Canada, Britain, South Africa, Italy, and Poland.

The Polish song hearkens to the red poppies that bloomed on the battlefield overnight.

Red poppies on Monte Cassino 
Instead of dew, drank Polish blood. 
As the soldier crushed them in falling, 
For the anger was more potent than death. 
Years will pass and ages will roll, 
But traces of bygone days will stay, 
And the poppies on Monte Cassino 
Will be redder having quaffed Polish blood.

A day after the song was composed, as part of the fourth military engagement and after significant losses, the Polish Corps were successful in capturing the precincts of the Monte Cassino monastery atop the hill, ultimately resulting in the liberation of Monte Cassino from the Axis powers. The Corps, led by Lieutenant General Władysław Anders, celebrated the victory later that day, singing The Red Poppies of Monte Cassino.

The song is still sung today during remembrance days and national holidays.

For flower enthusiasts, a little note about poppy species:
Field poppies are not the same poppies that produce the seeds you see on your bagels (the same ones responsible for opium). One of the 250 species of poppy, the Opium Poppy is a larger, taller flower that comes in a variety of colors. On the contrary, field poppies appear bright red, with papery thin petals, and bloom in late spring and early summer.

References

Photos
Photo #1: A view of Monte Cassino. Photograph taken by Dennis Jarvis, 2010. https://flic.kr/p/91XfML
Photo #2: Bright red poppies growing in someone’s garden. Photograph taken by Pierogi and Poppies, 2022.

Articles
American Legion, Poppy Day legion-aux.org/national-poppy-day
In Flanders Fields poetryfoundation.org/poems/47380/in-flanders-fields
John McCrae https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/john-mccrae
The Red Poppies on Monte Cassino https://war-poetry.livejournal.com/194588.html
Battle of Monte Cassino https://www.britannica.com/topic/Battle-of-Monte-Cassino
Bitwa o Monte Cassino, zdjęcia https://www.polskieradio.pl/261/5081/Galeria/1610490/1
24 Types of Poppies You Need to Know https://www.gardenia.net/guide/18-types-of-poppies-to-discover