2 Meanings
Add Yours
Follow
Share
Q&A
Remembrance Day Lyrics
On your maypole green
see the winding morris men
Angry Alfie, Bill and Ken
waving hankies, sticks and boots
- all the earth and roots
Standing at the crease
the batsman takes a look around
The boys are fielding on home ground
The steeple sharp against the blue
- when I think of you
Sam and Andy, Jack and John
Charlie, Martin, Jamie, Ron
Harry, Stephen, Will and Don
Matthew, Michael - on and on
We will remember them
remember them, remember them
We will remember them
remember them, remember them
Time has slipped away
The summer sky to autumn yields
A haze of smoke across the fields
Let's up and fight another round
and walk the stubbled ground
When November brings
the poppies on Remembrance Day
when the vicar comes to say
'May God bless them, every one
Lest we forget our sons'
We will remember them
remember them, remember them
We will remember them
remember them, remember them
see the winding morris men
Angry Alfie, Bill and Ken
waving hankies, sticks and boots
- all the earth and roots
the batsman takes a look around
The boys are fielding on home ground
The steeple sharp against the blue
- when I think of you
Charlie, Martin, Jamie, Ron
Harry, Stephen, Will and Don
Matthew, Michael - on and on
remember them, remember them
We will remember them
remember them, remember them
The summer sky to autumn yields
A haze of smoke across the fields
Let's up and fight another round
and walk the stubbled ground
the poppies on Remembrance Day
when the vicar comes to say
'May God bless them, every one
Lest we forget our sons'
remember them, remember them
We will remember them
remember them, remember them
Song Info
Submitted by
dogswede On Sep 10, 2009
More Mark Knopfler
So Far From the Clyde
What It Is
Speedway At Nazareth
Piper to the End
Border Reiver
Add your song meanings, interpretations, facts, memories & more to the community.
This is of course about those lost in the First World War. The line "we will remember them" comes from a poem by Laurence Binyon called 'For The Fallen'. The most famous verse is:
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning We will remember them.
I think the list of men's names - the village's cricket team is a neat, unmawkish way of showing the absolute devastation this war caused to the male population of villages across Britain.
You are absolutely right about the effect of the Great War on English neighborhoods. The effect was intensified by the British practice of forming territorial units. Every village has a war memorial.
Some predate WWI, and many of them have added casualties from later wars. I think the list of names is supposed to be from the local war memorial "...on and on".
The song's structure comes from how our experiences seem fixed, because the seasons circle around even as time slips away. The second verse is about the official commemoration; the first verse, speaks of remembering the fallen at May Day and in mid-summer.