Well, how do you do, young Willie McBride?
Do you mind if I sit down here by your graveside?
And rest for a while in the warm summer sun
I've been walkin' all day, and I'm nearly done
I see by your gravestone you were only 19
When you joined the great fallen in 1916
I hope you died well and I hope you died clean
But young Willie McBride, was it slow and obscene?
Did they beat the drum slowly, did they play the fife lowly?
Did they sound the departure as they lowered you down?
Did the band play, "The Last Post" in 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 fateful heart, are you forever 19?
Or are you a stranger without even a name
Enclosed and forever behind a glass frame
In an old photograph, torn, battered and stained
And faded to yellow in a brown leather frame?
Did they beat the drum slowly, did they play the fife lowly?
Did they sound the departure as they lowered you down?
Did the band play, "The Last Post" in chorus?
Did the pipes play, "The Flowers of the Forest"?
The sun, now it shines, on the green fields of France
There's a warm summer's 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 firin' down
But here in this graveyard that'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
Did they beat the drum slowly, did they play the fife lowly?
Did they sound the departure as they lowered you down?
Did the band play, "The Last Post" in chorus?
Did the pipes play, "The Flowers of the Forest"?
Ah young 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?
Well the sorrow, the suffering, the glory, the pain
The killing and dying, 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 departure as they lowered you down?
Did the band play, "The Last Post" in chorus?
Did the pipes play, "The Flowers of the Forest"?
Did they beat the drum slowly, did they play the fife lowly?
Did they sound the departure as they lowered you down?
Did the band play, "The Last Post" in chorus?
And did the pipes play, "The Flowers of the Forest"?
Thank you so much, thank you
Green Fields of France