Guest Gerry mentioned this song back at 29 Jun 06 – 08:28 PM. I copied the lyrics from Dick Gaughan's web site (and tweaked the line breaks to emphasize the rhyme). See the link above.

WHY OLD MEN CRY
Words & Music : Dick Gaughan
©Grian Music 1998

I walked from Ypres to Passchendaele in the first grey days of spring,
Through flatland fields where life goes on and carefree children sing,
Round rows of ancient tombstones where a generation lies,
And at last I understood why old men cry.

My mother's father walked these fields some eighty years ago.
He was half the age that I am now; no way that he could know
That his unborn grandchild someday would cross his path this way
And stand here where his fallen comrades lay.

He'd been dead a quarter century by the time that I was born.
The mustard gas which swept the trenches ripped apart his lungs—
Another name and number among millions there who died,
And at last I understood why old men cry.

I walked from Leith to Newtongrange at the turning of the year,
Through desolate communities and faces gaunt with fear,
Past bleak, abandoned pitheads where rich seams of coal still lie,
And at last I understood why old men cry.

My father helped to win the coal that lay neath Lothian's soil,
A life of bitter hardship the reward for years of toil,
But he tried to teach his children there was more to life than this:
Working all your life to make some fat cat rich.

I walked from Garve to Ullapool as the dawn light kissed the earth,
And breathed the awesome beauty of this land that gave me birth.
I looked into the future, saw a people proud and free
As I looked along Loch Broom out to the sea.