Recompense
I
saw
two
sowers
in
Life's
field
at
morn,
To
whom
came
one
in
angel
guise
and
said,
"Is
it
for
labour
that
a
man
is
born?
Lo:
I
am
Ease.
Come
ye
and
eat
my
bread!"
Then
gladly
one
forsook
his
task
undone
And
with
the
Tempter
went
his
slothful
way,
The
other
toiled
until
the
setting
sun
With
stealing
shadows
blurred
the
dusty
day.
Ere
harvest
time,
upon
earth's
peaceful
breast
Each
laid
him
down
among
the
unreaping
dead.
"Labour
hath
other
recompense
than
rest,
Else
were
the
toiler
like
the
fool,"
I
said;
"God
meteth
him
not
less,
but
rather
more
Because
he
sowed
and
others
reaped
his
store."
John McCrae
John McCrae born in Guelph, Ontario, Canadian poet, soldier, and physician John McCrae earned his undergraduate and medical degrees at the University of Toronto, where he received the Gold Medal. McCrae’s well-known poem “In Flanders Fields” memorializes the April 1915 battle in Belgium’s Ypres salient. For 17 days, McCrae tended those injured in the battle. January 28, 1918, at the age of 45. McCrae was buried with full military honors in Wimereux Cemetery near Boulogne, France. His family home in Guelph is preserved as a museum, and the main street in Wimereux is now named Rue McCrae.