The
Green Fields of France
Well how do you do young Willie McBride?
Do you mind if I sit down here by your graveside ?
And rest for a while 'neath the warm summer sun
I've been walkin' all day and I'm nearly done
I see by your gravestone you were only nineteen
When you joined the great fallen in 1916
I hope you died well and I hope you died clean
Or young Willie McBride was it slow and obscene ?
Well how do you do young Willie McBride?
Do you mind if I sit down here by your graveside ?
And rest for a while 'neath the warm summer sun
I've been walkin' all day and I'm nearly done
I see by your gravestone you were only nineteen
When you joined the great fallen in 1916
I hope you died well and I hope you died clean
Or young Willie McBride was it slow and obscene ?
Did
they beat the drums slowly ?
Did they play the fife lowly ?
Did they sound the death march as they lowered you down ?
Did the band play the last post and chorus ?
Did the pipes play the "Flowers of the Forest" ?
Did you leave a wife or a sweetheart behind ?
In some faithful heart is your memory enshrined ?
Although you died back in 1916
In that faithful heart are you forever nineteen?
Or are you a stranger without even a name ?
Enclosed down forever behind a glass pane
In an ould photograph torn tattered and stained, And faded to yellow in a brown leather frame?
The sun now it shines on the green fields of France
There’s a warm summer breeze,it makes the red poppies dance
And look how the sun shines from under the clouds,
There's no gas no barbed wire, there's no gun firing now
But here in this graveyard it's still No Man's land,
The countless white crosses stand mute in the sand
To man's blind indifference to his fellow man,
To a whole generation that was butchered and damned
Now Willie McBride I can't help wonder why
Do those who lie here know why they died ?
And did they believe when they answered the call ?
Did they really believe that this war would end wars ?
Well the sorrow, the suffering, the glory, the shame
The killing and dying were all done in vain
For young Willie McBride it's all happened again,
And again, and again, and again and again.
Did they sound the death march as they lowered you down ?
Did the band play the last post and chorus ?
Did the pipes play the "Flowers of the Forest" ?
Did you leave a wife or a sweetheart behind ?
In some faithful heart is your memory enshrined ?
Although you died back in 1916
In that faithful heart are you forever nineteen?
Or are you a stranger without even a name ?
Enclosed down forever behind a glass pane
In an ould photograph torn tattered and stained, And faded to yellow in a brown leather frame?
The sun now it shines on the green fields of France
There’s a warm summer breeze,it makes the red poppies dance
And look how the sun shines from under the clouds,
There's no gas no barbed wire, there's no gun firing now
But here in this graveyard it's still No Man's land,
The countless white crosses stand mute in the sand
To man's blind indifference to his fellow man,
To a whole generation that was butchered and damned
Now Willie McBride I can't help wonder why
Do those who lie here know why they died ?
And did they believe when they answered the call ?
Did they really believe that this war would end wars ?
Well the sorrow, the suffering, the glory, the shame
The killing and dying were all done in vain
For young Willie McBride it's all happened again,
And again, and again, and again and again.
No comments:
Post a Comment