It consisted of 888,246 ceramic poppies, denoting each member of the British Armed Forces who lost their life during the conflict, with the final flower planted on 11 November. In 2014, the artwork Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red was installed in the moat of the Tower of London to commemorate the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War. The appeal has grown from manufacturing poppies in a room above a shop in Bermondsey, South London to a facility in Richmond where 50 ex-servicemen and women work all year round producing tens of millions of the symbolic flowers. Their first Poppy Appeal in 1921 raised £106,000 – according to the charity’s annual accounts, the 2016 campaign made £49.2m. It was adopted as a symbol by the newly-formed Royal British Legion, established to provide support for members and veterans of the British Armed Forces and their families. The practice quickly spread to the UK, where the first ever Poppy Day was held on 11 November, 1921, the third anniversary of Armistice Day. Through the dancing poppies stole a breeze most softly lulling to my soul.In Flanders fields the poppies blow Between the crosses, row on rowĪs the war ended, American poet Moina Michael used In Flanders Fields as the inspiration for her own work, We Shall Keep the Faith, and began wearing and distributing the red poppy as a symbol of remembrance. Priestess Offering Poppies, Simeon Solomon They also embody respect and remembrance. Poppies have long permeated our culture in a deep and meaningful way, they are more than mere symbols of death. But Dorothy did not know this, nor could she get away from the bright red flowers that were everywhere about so presently her eyes grew heavy and she felt she must sit down to rest and to sleep.” –L. Now it is well known that when there are many of these flowers together their odor is so powerful that anyone who breathes it falls asleep, and if the sleeper is not carried away from the scent of the flowers he sleeps on and on forever. In the book, the poppy field has its own enchanting and dangerous power and the witch is not involved: “They now came upon more and more of the big scarlet poppies, and fewer and fewer of the other flowers and soon they found themselves in the midst of a great meadow of poppies. In the 1939 movie The Wizard of Oz, the Witch of the West casts a spell over a poppy field to make the main characters fall asleep. Evelyn De Morgan’s Night and Sleep shows the personification of Sleep sprinkling poppies to ensure a good night’s sleep for everyone below. Not all paintings of poppies embody death, though. Thomas Cooper Gotch shows poppies as symbols of death in his painting Death the Bride, where death is personified as a beautiful yet morbid bride ready to embrace you for eternity. For more, read my post Ophelia’s Flowers. Lizzie Siddal also posed for John Millais’ painting Ophelia, which shows a poppy floating close to her hand. Death was a Victorian preoccupation, especially after the death of Prince Albert sent Queen Victoria into a state of perpetual mourning. Rossetti included death in many of his works even before Lizzie’s untimely demise. Ill health plagued Lizzie throughout their courtship and marriage and her dependence on Laudanum may have caused the death of her stillborn daughter a couple of years after their marriage. ![]() The dove delivering a poppy into her open hands is of personal significance - a symbol of Lizzie’s death from an overdose of Laudanum, an Opium derivative (Opium is made from poppy seeds). ![]() Night, Simeon Solomonĭante Gabriel Rossetti painted Beata Beatrixas a tribute to his late wife, Elizabeth Siddal. Morpheus, god of dreams, is also frequently represented with poppies, as are Nyx (night) and Thanatos (death). Poppies and other hypnotic plants were found at the cave of Hypnos, god of sleep. She also transformed her mortal lover, Mecon, into the sacred flower. Afterwards, poppies sprang from Demeter’s footsteps. In Greek mythology, the gods gave Demeter a poppy to help her sleep after her daughter Persephone was abducted. Since ancient times, the scarlet poppy has been associated with sleep and death. ![]() See Valerie Meachum’s post The Persistence of Poppies and Why the Poppy? on BBC.co.uk. The tradition of using poppies for remembrance of those slain in war began with John McCrae’s poem In Flanders Field. The installation will include total of 888,246 ceramic poppies, each flower representing a British military fatality from WWI. The Tower of London is marking the centenary of World War I with a breathtaking art installation called Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red by artist Paul Cummins.
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