No Man's Land Lyrics - Peter, Paul & Mary

Well how do you do private william mcbride 

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

I'll 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 glorious fallen in 1916 

And I hope you died quick and I hope you died clean 

Or william mcbride was it slow and obscene? 

Chorus: 

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

Did the rifles fire o'er you as they lowered you down? 

Did the bugle play the last post and chorus? 

Did the pipes play the "flowers o' the forest"? 

Well the sun it shines now on these green fields of france 

The warm wind blows gently and the red poppies dance 

The trenches have vanished now under the plow 

No gas and no barbed wire, no guns fire now 

For here in this graveyard it's still no man's land 

And the countless white crosses in mute witness stand 

To man's blind indifference to his fellow man 

And a whole generation who butchered and damned 

(chorus) 

Well I can't help but wonder now, willie mcbride 

Do all those who lie here know just why they died? 

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

Did you really believe this war would end all wars? 

But the suffering the sorrow the glory the shame 

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

For william mcbride it's all happened again 

And again and again and again and again. 

(chorus)