Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day

You fritter and waste the hours in an offhand way

Kicking around on a piece of ground in your home town

Waiting for someone or something to show you the way

Tired of lying in the sunshine

Staying home to watch the rain

You are young and life is long

And there is time to kill today

And then one day you find

Ten years have got behind you

No one told you when to run

You missed the starting gun

You run, and you run to catch up with the sun, but it's sinking

And racing around to come up behind you again

And the sun is the same in a relative way, but you're older

Shorter of breath and one day closer to death

Every year is getting shorter

Never seem to find the time

Plans that either come to nought

Or half a page of scribbled lines

Hanging on in quiet desparation is the English way

The time is gone

The song is over

Thought I'd something more to say

Home, home again

I like to be here when I can

And when I come home cold and tired

It's good to warm my bones beside the fire

Far away, across the field

The tolling of the iron bell

Calls the faithful to their knees

To hear the softly spoken magic spell