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11 Nov 02 - 08:47 AM (#823259) Subject: Lyr Add: THIEPVAL From: Micca Bugger, after I had posted to a thread I realised that I should have put this up as an add as well. and just done a link from the thread, Bugger!! There is a tune written by Linda Kelly THIEPVAL* By Micca, May 2002 Its Halloween** midnight in the low lands of Flanders A cold pale fog on the land it is spread And out of the mist, come a marching and singing Long gaunt files of men near a hundred years dead They stand, parade order, by the building at Thiepval And at the command, each steps up and stands tall And receives in his turn from the ghost Colour Sergeant His name rank and number removed from the wall Their spectral Officer call the dismissal And grey NCOs give each man his paybook They salute and depart from the grim fields of Flanders Without a glance sideways or a backward look They march away and their singing is fading But long before dawn their home places they've found And finally back, after nearly a century Each man with relief can sink into home ground And all over Blighty*** their names are erasing From column, memorial and empty tomb The lost and the missing that have no known resting place Returning to lie in their dark native womb And now here at Thiepval there stands a cold monument Blank and unmarked made of pale Portland stone Because all the men it was made to memorial Have all returned home, to sleep still with their own "There's a long, long trail a winding into the land of my dreams Where nightingales are singing and a pale moon gleams" * Thiepval: a monument to WW1 dead in Flanders on which the names, ranks and numbers of 75,026 men are inscribed who have no known resting place **Halloween: It is believed in some cultures that at Halloween, when the veil between the dead and the living worlds are thin, every 100 years those that met with sudden or violent death are allowed back to correct a wrong or right an injustice. ***Blighty: WW1 slang for Britain (or home) to "cop a Blighty ", was to get wounded badly enough to be invalided home Copyright M.A. Patterson, May 2002 |
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11 Nov 02 - 09:51 AM (#823310) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Thiepval From: katlaughing Micca, I am really glad that you've put this up. I consider it one of your very best. It sends chills up my spine to hear you do it and also to read it. Well done darlin', luvyakat |
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12 Nov 02 - 03:41 AM (#823986) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Thiepval From: GUEST,Keith A o Hertford A most moving and evocative piece. A very original idea eloquently explored. Fine work Micha. I wish I had the tune. Keith. |
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12 Nov 02 - 12:54 PM (#824288) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Thiepval From: katlaughing refresh |
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12 Nov 02 - 01:40 PM (#824351) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Thiepval From: Áine Excellent song, dear Micca. I received your email, and I've traced this thread, so I now have no excuse for forgetting to put your song in the Songbook . . . which I will do, probably tomorrow. Thanks so much for giving me the 'headsup' on this, darlin'! ;-) All the best, Áine |
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12 Nov 02 - 05:30 PM (#824572) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Thiepval From: Lanfranc I, too, would like the tune. Hope to see Linda at the Brixton Bert Benefit (and you, too, Micca?) Great stuff, but I told you that the first time you sang it to me! Alan |