Lest We Forget

[Anonymous]

1st July 1916, the first day of the Battle of the Somme



Well how do you do Private William 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 glorious fallen in 1916
And I hope you died well, and I hope you died clean
Or young William McBride was it slow and obscene?

Did they beat they beat the drum slowly?
Did they sound the fife lowly?
Did the rifles fire over ye as they lowered ye down?
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 sweetheart behind?
In some loyal heart is your mem'ry enshrined?
And although you died back in 1916,
In that faithful heart are you forever nineteen?
Or are you a stranger without even a name
Enclosed and forever behind some glass pane
In an old photograph, torn and battered and stained
And fading to yellow in a brown leather frame?

Did they beat they beat the drum slowly?
Did they sound the fife lowly?
Did the rifles fire over ye as they lowered ye down?
Did the band play the last post and chorus;
Did the pipes play "The Flowers of the Forest?"

Well, the sun it shines down on these 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 still no man's land
And the rows of white crosses in mute witness stand
To man's blind indifference to his fellow man
To a whole generation who was butchered and damned.

Did they beat they beat the drum slowly?
Did they sound the fife lowly?
Did the rifles fire over ye as they lowered ye down?
Did the band play the last post and chorus;
Did the pipes play "The Flowers of the Forest?"

Now young Willie McBride I can't help but wonder
Do all those who lie here know when they died?
And did you believe when you answered the cause
Did you really believe that this war would end wars?
Well, the sorrow, the suffering, the glory, the shame
The killing, the dying, it was all done in vain;
For young Willie McBride it's all happened again
And again and again and again and again.

[Partan]

KW

I agree with your sentiment "Lest We Forget". Also empathised with the poem/song. Did you just forget to attribute it to Eric Bogle?

Partan

[Anonymous]

Yes, sorry should have been attributed to Eric Bogle - anyone who has visited the 1st World War battlefields and the Menin Gate at Ypres will maybe appreciate a wee bit more just how well the sentiments of Eric Bogle's song fit the subject.

[George Brims]

Surely EVERYBODY knows it's an Eric Bogle song? If they don't, they should. My favorite version is by June Tabor.

[Anonymous]

Maybe not George, although I am fairly certain NOBODY thought it was penned by me.

[Geo]

Surely EVERYBODY knows it's an Eric Bogle song? If they don't, they should. My favorite version is by June Tabor.

I didn't know who wrote it and having only ever heard Irish singers singing it thought it was an Irishman who wrote it. After seeing this thread I looked up Eric Bogle on the net, (hadn't heard of him) to find he's a Scotsman.

You live and learn!

[Anonymous]

I understand that Private William McBride was in the 36th Ulster Division, the Ulster Volunteers, so maybe that is why man Irish artits perform the song.......or maybe it is just a damn fine song.

[Geo]

Well how do you do Private William 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 glorious fallen in 1916
And I hope you died well, and I hope you died clean
Or young William McBride was it slow and obscene?

That's the first time I've read the original lyrics. All the previous versions of the song I have heard have slightly different words. Just the odd word here and there then a line in the chorus being different:

"Did the rifles fire over ye as they lowered ye down?"

being replaced with:

"Did they sound the death march as they lowered you down?"

Not much of a difference but because that's the way I've always heard it sung, the original seems "wrong."

Will have to listen to the original a lot to get used to it!