I Vow to Thee, My Country

Cecil Spring-Rice (music from "Jupiter" in Gustav Holst's The Planets Suite, Op. 32)

I vow to thee, my country, all earthly things above,
Entire and whole and perfect, the service of my love;
The love that asks no question, the love that stands the test,
That lays upon the altar the dearest and the best;
The love that never falters, the love that pays the price,
The love that makes undaunted the final sacrifice.

I heard my country calling, away across the sea,
Across the waste of waters she calls and calls to me.
Her sword is girded at her side, her helmet on her head,
And round her feet are lying the dying and the dead.
I hear the noise of battle, the thunder of her guns,
I haste to thee my mother, a son among thy sons.

And there's another country, I've heard of long ago,
Most dear to them that love her, most great to them that know;
We may not count her armies, we may not see her King;
Her fortress is a faithful heart, her pride is suffering;
And soul by soul and silently her shining bounds increase,
And her ways are ways of gentleness, and all her paths are peace.

A Soldier's Return

Brian Warfield

I went away to fight a war that small nations might be free.
Got a soldier's gun and uniform to fight the enemy.
I was trained to shoot my fellow man before he got to me,
And I danced with death in the mud and wept,
And prayed my home to see.

Refrain:
So come over to me darling girl, come here me Molly dear.
You are as welcome as the flowers in May, you're welcome here to me.
No more I'll fire the musket shot or hear the cannon roar,
I've done my time, now you'll be mine,
I'm yours forever more.

While in the trenches there I thought who starts these bloody wars,
And thought of these great Irishmen who died on these strange shores.
Then a bomb did burst, to the air it thrust some shrapnel, fire, and blood.
I escaped it then, shot back at them, and lay back in the mud.

Refrain:

While I was off in foreign lands, fighting other peoples' wars,
Some gallant men were fighting here to free their native shores.
You shot our leaders of '16, saw our city sacked and burned.
Then you sent us in the Black and Tans to greet our home return.

Refrain:

I don't need your hero's welcome.
I don't want your bugle call.
No brass band, no pipes and drums, no medal, badge, or star.
Just give me what you promised me when first I went to war,
That's freedom for old Ireland and I'll go to fight no more.

No Man's Land / Willie McBride

Eric Bogle

Well how do you do Private Willie McBride?
Do you mind if I sit here by your graveside?
And sit for awhile 'neath the warm summer sun,
I've been walking all day and I'm near to done.
I can see by your gravestone you were only nineteen,
When you joined the great fallen of Nineteen Sixteen,
Well I hope you died well, I hope you died clean,
Or young Willie McBride, was it slow and obscene?

Refrain:
Did they beat the drum 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" in chorus?
Did the pipes play "The Flowers of the Forest"?

Did you leave e'er a wife, or a sweetheart behind,
In some faithful heart is your memory enshrined?
Or did you die barren, in Nineteen Sixteen,
In that faithful heart are you forever nineteen?
Or are you a stranger without even a name,
Enclosed forever behind the glass pane,
In an old photograph, torn, tattered and stained,
And faded to yellow in a brown leather frame?

Refrain:

Well the sun it now shines on the green fields of France,
There's a warm Summer's breeze makes the red poppies dance.
And see 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'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.

Refrain:

Ah, young Willie McBride, I can't help wonder why
Do those that lie here know why they did die?
And did they believe, when they answered the call,
Did they really believe that this war would end all?
But the sorrow, the suffering, the glory, the pain,
The killing, the dying, were all done in vain,
For young Willie McBride it's all happened again,
And again, and again, and again, and again.