No Man's Land Lyrics - Joss Stone

Well, how do you do, William Mcbride? 

Do you mind if I sit down here by your graveside? 

And rest for awhile in the warm summer sun, 

I've been walking all day, and I'm nearly done. 

And I see by your gravestone you were only 19 

When you joined the great fallen in 1916, 

I hope you died quick and I hope you died clean 

Or, Willie Mcbride, was it slow and obscene? 

Did they beat the drum slowly, did the play the pipes lowly? 

Did the rifles fired over you as they lowered you down? 

Did the bugles sound the last post in chorus? 

Did the pipes play the flowers of the forest? 

Related 

26 Best Breakup Songs Of All Time 

Watch Zayn's Music Video For New Single 'Dusk Till Dawn' 

Which Taylor Clone From The 'Look What You Made Me Do' Video Are You? 

And did you leave a wife or a sweetheart behind 

In some loyal heart is your memory enshrined? 

And, though you died back in 1916, 

And that loyal heart are you forever 19? 

Or are you a stranger without even a name, 

Forever enshrined behind some glass pane, 

In an old photograph, torn and tattered and stained, 

And fading to yellow in a brown leather frame? 

The sun's shining down on these green fields of France; 

The warm wind blows gently, and the red poppies dance. 

The trenches have vanished long under the plow; 

No gas and no barbed wire, no guns firing now. 

But here in this graveyard that's still no man's land 

The countless white crosses in mute witness stand 

To man's blind indifference to his fellow man. 

And a whole generation who were butchered and damned. 

Photos 

And I can't help but wonder, now Willie Mcbride, 

Do all those who lie here know why they died? 

Did you really believe them when they told you "the cause?" 

Did you really believe that this war would end wars? 

Well the suffering, the sorrow, the glory, the shame 

The killing, the dying, it was all done in vain, 

For Willie Mcbride, it all happened again, 

And again, and again, and again, and again.