 He noted the distinction between the pastoral tone of the first nine lines and the "recruiting-poster rhetoric" of the third stanza.Describing it as "vicious" and "stupid", Fussell called the final lines a "propaganda argument against a negotiated peace".McCrae was moved to the medical corps and stationed in Boulogne, France, in June 1915 where he was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel and placed in charge of medicine at the Number 3 Canadian General Hospital.