Home Lad, Home

Behind the trench in Flanders the sun was setting low With tramp of feet and jingle as I heard the gunteams go When something seemed to mind me a dreaming as I lay Of my old Hampshire village at the quiet end of day Proud thatch with gardens blooming with lily and with rose The cool shining river, so pleasant where he flows White fields of oats and barley and the elderflower like foam And the sky a gold at sunset and the horses going home And it's home, lads home, all among the corn and clover Home lads home, when the working day is over Where there's rest for horse and man when the longest day is done And we'll all go home together at the setting of the sun Captain Prince and Blossom, I see them all so plain With tasseled earflaps nodding all along the leafy lane Somewhere a bird is calling and the swallows flying low And the lads all sitting sideways and singing as they goAnd it's home, lads home, all among the corn and clover Home lads home, when the working day is over Where there's rest for horse and man when the longest day is done And we'll all go home together at the setting of the sun Gone is many a lad now and many a horse gone too All those lads and horses from those old fields I knew For Dick fell at Givenchy and Prince beside the gun On that red road to glory a mile or two from Mons Gray lads and shadowy horses, I see them just the same I see them and I know them and I call them each by name Going down the shining waters with all the West a-glow And the lads all sitting sideways and singing as they go And it's home, lads, home, with the sunset on their faces Home lads, home to those quiet happy places Where there's rest for horse and man when the hardest fight is done And they'll all go home together at the setting of the sun