August 4 1914

It was the summer - August 4 When England joined the First World War 1914 the very year Before wives and children shed their bitter tears ‘The war to end wars’ was the battle cry Before there had been one widow’s sigh The men lined up by the score To enlist, sacrifice themselves to this bitter war Friends and families made their mark Pals regiments were formed in town and park From factories, clubs, offices and farms They became privates, sergeants, men at arms And off they went through the streets Not knowing that they were cannon meat Cheered and applauded as they marched Toward war’s verdant fields not yet parched “It’ll be over by Christmas” came the call “Get over there one and all” No one of them, home or abroad Had ever heard of “Total War” Posters beckoned from every wall Poets wrote of war’s enthrall Songs and stories came thick and fast Glorifying war and our heroic past But very soon came the acrid truth Millions dead - “Anthem of Doomed Youth” Trial by ordeal and fire and zeal A generation gone through war’s sharp steel The sombre, bitter, vile death-calls Quickly killed the tunes of the music halls Wounded, dead, disfigured men Many mutilated beyond any ken At the end it was all for naught That carnage in each battle fought Kings deposed and Empires lost But the worst thing was the human cost One hundred years to this very day Like then we shake our heads and say Still in wars our sons and daughters die To all that is holy, why? oh why?