Christmas 1915

Nineteen-fifteen on Christmas Day On the Western Front the guns all died away And lying in the mud on bags of sand We heard a German sing from No Man's Land He had a tenor voice so pure and true The words were strange but every note we knew Soaring over the the living dead and damned The German sang of peace from No Man's Land They left their trenches and then we left ours Beneath tin hats they smiled just like wildflowers With photos, cigarettes, and pots of wine We built a soldier's truce on the front line Their singer was a lad of twenty-one We begged another song before the dawn And sitting in the mud and blood and fear He sang again the song all longed to hear Silent night, no cannons roar A king of peace is born for evermore All's calm, all's bright All brothers hand in hand In nineteen-fifteen in No Man's Land In the morning all guns boomed in the rain And we killed them, and they killed us again With bayonet, bomb, and bullet, gas, and flame And neither we nor they at all to blame There was heavy fighting right throughout the day For one night's peace we bloodily did pay At night they charged, we fought them hand to hand And I killed the boy that sang in No Man's Land Silent night, no cannons roar A king of peace is born for evermore All's calm, all's bright All brothers hand in hand And that young soldier sings And the song of peace still rings Though the captains and all the kings Built no man's land Sleep in heavenly peace