"___ist" ? Maybe in the same way that most people are when they're being honest. The song is, in feeling, an awful lot like "The 51st Highland Division's Farewell to Sicily."

I heard folks do this song with Bellamy's tune, and didn't really notice it. Jeff Warner sings it slow-ish, and it seems to mean a lot more when you can think about the words in between the notes, and hear it as something wistful and a bit sad.

Anybody who's ever listened to those who've lived in a foriegn land (especially during a war), when they complained about how bad it was on the surface, but were really talking about, "That was a time, wasn't it?" knows what I mean. The worst times sometimes are the best times. Kipling speaks as a common soldier, and really nails the irony of a person's heaven and hell being one and the same.