Green Fields of France lyrics

How do you do, Private William McBride

Do you mind if I sit here down by the graveside?

Rest for a while in the warm summer sun

I've been walking all day, and I'm nearly done

I see by your gravestone you were only 19

When you joined the dead heroes in 1915

And I hope you died quick, and I hope you died clean

Or, Willie McBride, was it slow and obscene?

Did they beat the drums slowly, did they sound the fife lowly?

Did the rifles fire ov'r ya as they lowered you down?

Did the bugles sing "The Last Post" in 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?

Though you died back in 1915

To some faithful heart you're forever 19

Or are you a stranger without even a name

Enshrined forever behind a glass frame

Like an old photograph, torn and tattered and stained

Fading to yellow in a brown leather frame?

Did they beat the drums slowly, did they sound the fife lowly?

Did the rifles fire ov'r ya as they lowered you down?

Did the bugles sing "The Last Post" in chorus?

Did the pipes play "The Flowers of the Forest"?

As the sun's shining down on these green fields of France

A warm wind blows gently, and the red poppies dance

The trenches have faded under the plow

No gas and 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 in mute witness stand

To man's blind indifference to his fellow man

To a whole generation that was butchered and damned

Did they beat the drums slowly, did they sound the fife lowly?

Did the rifles fire ov'r ya as they lowered you down?

Did the bugles sing "The Last Post" in chorus?

Did the pipes play "The Flowers of the Forest"?

Now, I can't help but wonder, now Willie McBride

Do all those who lie here know why they died?

Did you really believe them when they told you "The Cause"?

Did you really believe that this war would end wars?

The suffering, the sorrow, the glory, the shame

The killing, the dying, it was all done in vain

For Willie McBride, it all happened again

And again, and again, and again, and again

Did they beat the drums slowly, did they sound the fife lowly?

Did the rifles fire ov'r ya as they lowered you down?

Did the bugles sing "The Last Post" in chorus?

Did the pipes play "The Flowers of the Forest"?