Remembering D Day

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 live
in Flanders fields.

Take up our quarel with the foes
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 field.

- Lt. Col. John McCrae (1872 - 1918) [lies buried in Flanders field]

"To be heading into the inexerable...where no mother will care for us...no woman crosses our path...where only reality reigns...with cruelty and grandeur."

The Maiden:
"It's all over! alas, it's all over now!
Go, savage man of bone!
I am still young - go, devoted one!
and do not molest me."

Death:
"Give me your hand, you fair and tender form!
I am a friend; I do not come to punish.
Be of good cheer! I am not savage.
You shall sleep gently in my arms."

This poem is the inspiration for Schubert's melancholic and sublime "Death and the Maiden" string quartet.