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 walking all day and I'm nearly done I can see by your gravestone, you were only nineteen When you joined the great fallen in 1916. Well I hope you died well and I hope you died clean Willie McBride, was it slow and obscene Did they beat the drum 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 'ere a wife or a sweetheart behind In that faithful heart is your memory enshrined Although you died back in 1916 In that faithful heart your forever nineteen Or are you a stranger without even a name Enclosed out forever, behind a glass pane In an old photograph, torn, tattered and stained And faded to yellow in a brown leather frame Did they beat the drum slowly, did they play the fife lowly And sound the death march as they lowered you down Did the band play the Last Post and Chorus And did the pipes play 'The Flowers of the Forest' Now Willie McBride, I can't help wonder why Do those that lie here know why did they die And did they believe when they answered the call Did they really believe that this war would end wars And the sorrow, the suffering, the glory, the pain And the killing and dying was it all done in vain For young Willie McBride, it all happened again And again and again and again and again Did they beat the drum 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 And did the pipes play 'The Flowers of the Forest' Now the sun, shines down on the green fields of France There's a warm summer's breeze that makes the red poppies dance The trenches have vanished long under the plough 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 And the countless white crosses stand mute in the sand From a man's blind indifference to his fellow man To a whole generation that who butchered and damned Chorus Did they beat the drum 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 the band play the Last Post and Chorus Did the pipes play 'The Flowers of the Forest'