The Soldier

If I should die, think only this of me: 

That there's some corner of a foreign field 

That is forever England. There shall be 

In that rich earth a richer dust concealed; 

A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware, 

Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam; 

A body of England's, breathing English air, 

Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home. 

And think, this heart, all evil shed away, 

A pulse in the eternal mind, no less 

Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given; 

Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day; 

And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness, 

In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.

Lest We Forget
Ian A. Millar

Now see the old seaman 
Not a word has he said
In silence and tribute
He remembers the dead.

Some young people question
Most veterans don't know
What it is he remembers
From so long ago.

How quickly forgotten
How sad they don't know
How they died on the Oceans
Of so long ago.

He's a bosun, a wiper
The others as well
They sailed in harm's way
In battle they fell.

Now the band they are playing
A tear or two shed
It's flowers o' the forest
For our seafaring dead.

Now see that old seaman
Whose chums there had died
He's twenty years younger
His chest swells with pride.

Some young people question
Most veterans don't know
Of the great price they paid there
So long ago.

IhateRS said:

The Trooper:

And as I lay there gazing at the sky

My body's numb and my throat is dry

And as I lay forgotten and alone

Without a tear I draw my parting groan

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