The Green Fields of Franch

THE GREEN FIELDS OF FRANCE

Well how do you do
young Willie McBride
do you
mind if I sit here down by your graveside. And rest for a
while 'neath the warm summer sun. I've been working all day and
I'm nearly done. I see by your gravestone you were
only nineteen when you joined the dead heroes of nineteen-sixteen.
I hope you died well and I hope you died
clean. Or Willie McBride
was it slow and obscene.

Chorus:

Did they beat the drum slowly
did they play the fife lowly

did they sound the dead-march as they lowered you down.
And did the band play the Last post and chorus.
Did the pipes play the 'Flowers of the forest'.

And did you leave a wife or a sweetheart behind
In some faithful heart is your memory enshrined
Although you died back in nineteen sixteen
In that faithful heart are you forever nineteen
Or are you a stranger without even a name
Enclosed and forever behind the glass frame
In a old photograph
torn and battered and stained
And fade 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 guns 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 were butchered and damned.

Now young Willie McBride I can't help but wonder why
Do all those who lie here know why they died
Another post for Veterans'/Remembrance Day.

And did they believe when they answered the cause
Did they really believe that this war would end wars
Well the sorrows
the suffering
the glory. the pain
The killing and dying was all done in vain
For young Willie McBride it all happened again
And again
and again
and again
and again.

Chorus:

Did they beat the drum slowly
did they play the fife lowly

did they sound the dead-march as they lowered you down.
And did the band play the Last post and chorus.
Did the pipes play the 'Flowers of the forest'.

Also wrote "The Band Played Waltzing Matilda".

See here for a snippet of that song.

Two of my favorite songs.

Each can bring a tear to my eye in the right context. I've had a hard time singing of Willie McBride on occasion.

PS. I'm north and west of the turnpike too. :)

...and play "The Band Played Waltzing Matilda" for my classes each Veterans' Day.

I make it through the poem, but usually not the song...

And their ghosts may be heard
As they march by the billabong:
"Who'll go a-waltzin' Matilda with me?"

We were in Bermuda one year at Remembrance Day and attended the parade and memorial service at the Cenotaph. The British sure do have a very moving ceremony with the "Last Post" and all.

Yep, I have chills just thinking about it.

Is great in performance

...but the actual title of the song is "No Man's Land."

Sorry, but I want every to read these words, (and if you're like me, here it sung in your head) at least once today.

Well the sorrows
the suffering
the glory. the pain
The killing and dying was all done in vain
For young Willie McBride it all happened again

I missed it first time.

*sniff*