The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #7575   Message #165242
Posted By: Auxiris
19-Jan-00 - 11:24 AM
Thread Name: Anti-war songs from WWI
Subject: Lyr Add: SEEN FROM AN AID-POST^^
And here's another one for those of you who might be interested in putting the text to music.

cheers, Auxiris

SEEN FROM AN AID-POST
(from the B.E.F. Times, credited to R.M.O.)

There are many roads in Flanders, where the hoses slide and fall,
There are roads of mud and pavé that lead nowhere at all,
They are roads that finish at our Trench ; the Germans hold the rest,
But of all the roads in Flanders there is one I know the best.
It's a great road, a straight road, a road that runs between
Two rows of broken poplars that were young and strong and green.

You can trace it from old Poperinghe, through vlamertinghe and Wipers ;
(It's a focus for Hun whizbangs and a paradise for snipers)
Pass the solid Ramparts and the muddy moat you're then in
The road I want to sing about---the road that leads to Menin.
It's a great road, a straight road, a road that runs between
Two rows of broken poplars that were young and strong and green.

It's a road that's cursed by smokers for you dare not show a light ;
It's a road that's shunned by daytime and is mainly used at night,
But at dusk the silent troops come up and limbers bring their loads
Of ammunition to the guns that guard the Saljent's roads.
It's a great road, a straight road, a road that runs between
Two rows of broken poplars that were young and strong and green.

And for hours and days together I have listened to the sound
Of German shrapnel overhead while I was underground
In a damp and cheerless cellar continually trying
To dress the wounded warriors while comforting the dying.
On that muddy road, that bloody road, that road that runs between
Two rows of broken poplars that were young and strong and green.