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The Red Poppy, a poem …Open page here
By Raymond Groves
London, November
11: Every year since WW1 ended on 11th November 1918, in many countries
worldwide, that calendar day has been set aside to honour the war dead;
initially of WW1 (1914-1918); and is variously described as Armistice
Day; Veterans Day; Remembrance Day; Anzac Day; and, of particular relevance
here, as “Poppy Day”.
And, every year at 11am on that day (or/and the nearest Sunday to it),
a respectful silence has been observed; a practice suggested within a
letter sent to the London Evening News in May 1919.
Written under a nom-de-plume by a Military Journalist from Melbourne named
Edward George Honey, the letter indirectly attracted the attention and
approval of King George V.
The link between Red Poppies and war is usually attributed to a Canadian
physician and soldier, Lt. Col. John McCrae, through his famous poem about
WW1, “In Flanders Field”; published in Punch Magazine in 1915;
although the correlation, between the distribution of the common Red Poppy
(Papaver Rhoeas; illustn.1) and blood spilt with loss of life on European
battlefields, had already been noted by the end of the Napoleonic wars
at the beginning of the 19th century.
The Red Poppy, largely through its persistent natural seed bank and germination
characteristics, has evolved into a ruderal plant and agricultural weed,
and it flourishes on naturally or humanly disturbed ‘open’ ground.
There, it takes advantage of lack of direct competition, and of its copious
production of small seeds with their seemingly regulated dormancy spans.
Its seeds appear to be stimulated to germinate by sudden disruption of
the top 10 centimeters or so of the ground surface.
It is understood that the Red Poppy is both salt-tolerant and an accumulator
of salt.
Those characteristics led to the poppy sometimes being deliberately planted,
grown, cropped, and finally burned; in a practice aimed to reduce the
salinity of reclaimed land, which thereafter enabled effective growth
of conventional, agricultural crops.
This practice may have increased the prevalence of the Red Poppy across
the north of continental Europe.
It has been claimed and broadcast that the Red Poppy requires ‘lime’
and is specifically encouraged by the lime-rich mortar found within rubble
originating from war-damaged buildings.
However, land with demolished buildings also represents a well-drained,
‘open habitat’, so the specific lime requirement may be apparent
only; and, because it appears to thrive on a wide variety of geological
substrata, one cannot certainly conclude that the poppy is an obligatory
calcicole.
During the Napoleonic wars, there was much disturbance of land; both from
the use of horse and cannon on the battlefield and also from the destructive
‘scorched earth policies’ applied by both sides during those
conflicts.
In addition, throughout Europe, 1816 was ‘The Year Without a Summer’;
a phenomenon resulting from ash that was ejected high into the atmosphere
during the massive 1815 volcanic eruption of Tambora; far away from Europe
on the island of Sumbawa, Indonesia.
Apart from inspiring Joseph Turner’s widely acclaimed, red, sunset
pictures, which are as famous as Claude Monet’s later painting, “Poppies
near Argenteuil” (illustr.4), that event - the largest eruption on
earth for 1600 years - led to catastrophic crop failures worldwide, and
no doubt opened up yet more habitats for colonisation by Europe’s
Red Poppy.
As during the Napoleonic era, the battlegrounds of WW1 were also disturbed
by shelling and other destructive military activity, which led to a sudden,
rapid germination of previously dormant Red Poppy seeds and the development
of related, flourishing populations of the rapidly-maturing plant. Such
transience of poppy expression is partly from the plant’s rapid,
ephemeral life-cycle, but it also arises from speedy regeneration of the
plant community that prevailed prior to disturbance, which quickly returns
to compete with, and to overwhelm, the opportunistic poppy.
In November 1918; following the publication of John McCrae’s poem
in 1915; Prof. Moina Michael, an American, endorsed John McCrae’s
sentiment with a poem of her own, and became the first to wear a Red Poppy
‘in Remembrance’.
In France in 1920, Madame Guerin became the first to handcraft poppies
from fabric, for that purpose, and, by 1921, she had delegated her skill,
so that many French war-widows were able to raise funds by selling the
poppies they had made.
In Canada in 1921, the mass-production of velour poppies (illustr.3),
was first undertaken through the use of ‘poppy press machines’.
Some such early equipment can still be seen at Charlottetown in Canada;
conserved there by the local branch of the Royal Canadian Legion.
Shortly after the end of WW1, and especially from 1926 onwards, the Woman’s
Co-operative Guild strove to introduce the wearing of artificial White
Poppies out of respect for Remembrance; as an alternative to the traditional
Red ones.
Whilst also an emblem that honours those falling in war, the White Poppy
(illust.2), is worn to emphasise a desire for peace.
The Royal British Legion does not officially deny that sentiment, but
an ongoing, heated controversy exists over this.
Thus, some fiercely patriotic veterans; those who view of war as a justified
means to achieve ends and who honour bravery and sacrifice within the
armed services; object to the use of the White Poppy by those pacifists
who regard WW1 as an event that warns against war whatever the circumstances:
thus the difference is one between two extreme views; one from each ‘camp’.
The context of that
controversy complicates consideration of the current war in Afghanistan.
One reason provided by western leaders to justify their military presence
in Afghanistan, is an envisaged need to control the cultivation of Afghan
Papaver somniferum; the Opium Poppy (illusts. 5 and 6); a species that
is readily misused through it being a source of illicit drugs.
However, over many centuries; and especially currently; that poppy has
also been; and is; positively and extensively exploited as a medical source
of the almost miraculous painkiller, morphine.
The Opium Poppy occurs in a wide range of colours; including red; pink;
purple; white; and in bicolour. In Afghanistan, the most prevalent variant
is white with a magenta centre.
Were it ever to be used as a template for Remembrance poppies, that variant
would be multi-representational, for each of its petals exhibits ‘white’
along with a shade of ‘red’ (illust.5).
The sheer number of poppies in Afghanistan (illust.6), brings to mind
the many bystander-civilians who have died during recent “pre-emptive”
wars; deaths that have too often; inhumanely and almost to the point of
racist offence; been described as “collateral damage”.
The Afghanistan economy provides over 90% of the world’s Opium Poppies,
and that proportion increases every year: thus it is widely noted that,
during 2007 alone, poppy production there increased by 1/3rd.
From its medical application, and because the Opium Poppy is of such great
importance to the beleaguered economy of that impoverished country, many
believe that a policy of destroying poppy crops in Afghanistan is shortsighted.
It has been widely suggested that, instead of exterminating them, the
crops should be licensed and monitored, to try to ensure that related
final products are channeled towards proper medical use.
While the war continues, attempts are being undertaken to secure an uninterrupted
supply of opiate drugs to meet medical needs, by cultivating more Opium
Poppies outside Afghanistan at locations where marketing outlets can be
most easily managed.
In relation to Afghanistan – the ‘modern Crusade’; the
‘pursuit of Bin Laden’; ‘Halliburton Oil interests’;
and ‘the establishment of some kind of Democracy’ – pall
to insignificance alongside the issue of the Opium Poppy; with its use
and misuse as iconic symbols of good and evil.
The Southeast Asian Times