The Lads Who Went Away…
They left their ploughs and homely fields
To heed the call of war,
They thought their homes and village life
Were well worth fighting for.
And some returned to work again
With horses and the plough,
And some returned with burnt out souls:
What price their glory now?
And some, they never did return,
But lie in foreign fields,
Where sun and rain and seedtime
No harvest for them yields.
The horse and plough have long since gone,
Old village ways gone too,
But the freedom that they fought for
Is their gift to me and you.
P. Young