How do you do, young William McBride?
Do you mind if I sit here, down by your graveside?
And rest for a while, in the warm summer sun?
I've been working all day, and I'm nearly done
And I see by your gravestone you were only 19
When you joined the great fallen in 1916
Well I hope you died quick, and I hope you died clean,
Or, young Willie McBride, was it slow and obcene?
Did they beat the drums slowly, did they play the fife lowly?
Did the sound the death march, when they lowered you down?
Did the band play The Last Post and ?
Did the pipes play The Flowers of the Forrest?
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 19?
Or are you a stranger without even a name?
Inclosed forever, behind a glass frame?
In an old photograph, torn and battered and stained?
And faided to yellow, in a brown leather frame?
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 ?
Did the pipes play The Flowers of the Forrest?
The sun now it shines on the green fields of france
There's a warm summer breeze that makes red poppies dance
Look how the sun shines from under the clouds
There's no gas, there's no barbwire, no gun firing now!
But here in this graveyard, it's still no mans land,
Countless white crosses stand mute in the sand
To man's blind indifference to his fellow man, to a whole generation who were butchered and damned!
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 ?
Did the pipes play The Flowers of the Forrest?
Now young Willie McBride, I can't help wonder why
Do all those who lie here know why they died?
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, the dying, was it all done in vain?
For young Willie McBring, it all happened again
And again, and again, and again, and again
Did the beat the drums slowly, did they play the pipe lowly?
Did they sound the death march, as they lowered you down?
Did the band play The Last Post and ?
Did the pipes play The Flowers of the Forrest?
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 ?
Did the pipes play The Flowers of the Forrest?

SUBMIT CORRECTIONS