Breathtaking Photos of the Tower of London Adorned with 888,246 Ceramic Poppies to Commemorate WWI

[n2doc]

To honor the centennial of Britain’s beginnings in World War I, a pair of artist teamed up to work on an incredible installation, which you can see in these stunning photographs.

Titled “Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red,” the display was put together by artist Paul Cummins and stage designer Tom Piper, and when it’s all said and done it will consist of 888,246 red ceramic poppies surrounding the dry moat of the Tower of London. Each of the individual flowers represents a British or Colonial Military fatality.

The construction of the piece is being done by a number of volunteers over the course of the summer and is already well on its way to completion. The final flower will symbolically be set in its resting place on November 11th, Remembrance Day for the Commonwealth.

Below are images released by the Historic Royal Palaces showing the breathtaking display in progress:




more

http://petapixel.com/2014/08/02/breathtaking-photos-tower-london-adorned-888246-ceramic-poppies-commemorate-wwi/#more-141481

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. What a beautiful and poignant display...n/t

[BeyondGeography]

2. Stunning, searing...a war poem written by one of those commemorated

Rain

BY EDWARD THOMAS

Rain, midnight rain, nothing but the wild rain
On this bleak hut, and solitude, and me
Remembering again that I shall die
And neither hear the rain nor give it thanks
For washing me cleaner than I have been
Since I was born into solitude.
Blessed are the dead that the rain rains upon:
But here I pray that none whom once I loved
Is dying tonight or lying still awake
Solitary, listening to the rain,
Either in pain or thus in sympathy
Helpless among the living and the dead,
Like a cold water among broken reeds,
Myriads of broken reeds all still and stiff,
Like me who have no love which this wild rain
Has not dissolved except the love of death,
If love it be towards what is perfect and
Cannot, the tempest tells me, disappoint.

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/184097

[yellerpup]

3. Breathtaking.

A poignant tribute. No more wars.

[mn9driver]

4. Poppies are used as a symbol of the dead due to this poem:

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 lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
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 fields.

by John McCrae, May 1915

[roguevalley]

5. wonderful. thank you

[mountain grammy]

6. Beautiful and sad. War is such a waste..

[MrMickeysMom]

7. I believe the individual poppies will be sold after the exhibit comes down...

Very good move.

[ReRe]

8. K&R

I'm going to link this to another thread that discussed this a few days ago.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025318647

[vanlassie]

9. Thank you for posting this. I'm going to London next month,

and made a plan to see this thanks to your post!

[oldandhappy]

10. beautiful and heart-rending.

Thank you for the post.

I see things on DU I would never see otherwise. Appreciate this post.

[flt rsk]

11. Uncle Max

If all those killed in Flanders were to rise today, there would not be enough room for all of them to stand.

My great uncle was wounded there. A machine gun ripped his belly open and his intestines were spilling out. When the ambulance came, the attendants tried to throw him in with the other wounded and dead. He told my grandmother that he knew that if he had been put into the ambulance he would have been crushed or smothered by other wounded and dead on top of him. He sat on the fender, using his hands to keep his intestines inside of himself and used the water from his canteen, kept the intestines wet until they reached the aid station. He died at age 92 in a small town just south of Dallas, Texas.

That is the only story he ever told about the war.

[Patiod]

12. Thanks for that story

Most of us don't have family stories from either the Great Influenza outbreak or WWI, because people who lived through those (simultaneous) events did not talk about them.

[calimary]

19. Welcome to DU, flt rsk!

Glad you're here! That's an amazing story! It's good to hear your great uncle lived to tell the tale, and LIVED! To a ripe old age, at that.

AMAZING. Who among us would have had that kind of presence of mind in such a crisis? Doubt if I could have kept my cool like that. Thank you for sharing that story! Really makes one think!

[cwydro]

13. Thanks for posting this. nt

[Coventina]

14. K&R for a spectacular post!

Staggering in its beauty and sadness.

[polichick]

15. Very creative and memorable.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

16. It was an awful war

Great Britain suffered 3 million total casualties (combat deaths, wounded, and missing). France, Germany, and Austria each suffered twice that many casualties. Russia suffered 9 million.

[cwydro]

17. Kick for remembrance

[catbyte]

18. WOW

That is impressive. Thank you.

[malthaussen]

20. Magnificent.

100 years... seems hard to believe. "lest we forget," but somehow, we don't seem to remember.

-- Mal

[Liberal_in_LA]

21. beautiful