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Well how do you do young
Willie McBride?
Do you mind if I sit here
down by your grave side
And rest for a while
'neath the warm summer sun?
I've been walking all day
and I'm nearly done
I see by your grave stone
you were only nineteen
When you joined the great
fallen in nineteen sixteen
I hope you died well and I
hope you died clean
Or young 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
And did the band play the
last
post and chorus
Did the pipes play the
flowers of the forest
Did you leave you a wife
or a
sweetheart behind?
In some faithful heart is
your memory enshrined?
Although you died back in
nineteen sixteen
In that faithful heart are
you forever nineteen?
Or are you a stranger
without even a name
And closed in forever
behind the glass frame
In an old photograph
torn battered and stained
And faded to yellow in a
brown leathern frame?
Did they beat the drum
slowly
Did the 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
The sun now it shines on
the 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 gun firing now
But here in this graveyard
its 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 death
march as they lowered you down
And did the band play the
last
post and chorus
Did the pipes play the
flowers of the forest
Ah young Willie McBride I
can't help wondering 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 war
Well the sorrow, the
suffering, the glory, the pain
The killing and dying were
all done in vain
For young Willie McBride
it's 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
Did the pipes play the
flowers of the forest
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 chorus
And did the pipes play the
flowers of the forest.
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