The poppy's significance to Remembrance Day is a result of "In Flanders Fields", one of
the most famous poems about World War I which was written by Canadian physician and Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae on May 3, 1915.

The poppies referred to in the poem grew in profusion in Flanders Field, where war
casualties had been buried and thus became a symbol of Remembrance Day, their red
colour an appropriate symbol for the bloodshed of trench warfare.

An official adaptation into French, used by the Canadian government in Remembrance
Day ceremonies, was written by Jean Pariseau and is entitled "Au champ d'honneur."
The poem has achieved near-mythical status in contemporary Canada, and is easily one
of the nation's proudest symbols. Most Remembrance Day ceremonies will feature a
reading of the poem in some form, and many Canadian schoolchildren memorize the verse.

A portion of the poem is now printed on Canadian $10 notes, where it spawned a false
rumour that the poem had been misprinted, resulting from popular confusion between the first line's "blow" and the penultimate line's "grow".

The lines "To you from failing hands we throw the torch; be yours to hold it high" have
been adopted as the motto of the Montreal Canadiens hockey team.

The poem has also inspired several "response" poems, written from the point of view of the still - living to whom the torch is thrown, in reply to the challenge that McCrae puts forth in his final stanza.

Click here to read the poem.