From here in 2017 it all seems
like some ghastly unreal dream
yet a century ago this vaunted
war that was to end all wars
had one more grim year to run
untold millions already dead
rivers of blood still to be shed.
The memorials are all around
in every city, village and town
monuments to the carnage
and bereavement scarring
this green and pleasant land
forever after it seemed then
though few now even look
at these sombre cenotaphs
the whole catastrophe
having been consigned
to the dustbin of history
or the dull factual pages
of high school textbooks.
Oh, our minds should be
haunted and full of ghosts
for across the Channel
not so far away in France
thousands of young men
were dying day after day.
Did they thus fall in vain
to be unremembered so?
Who of us cares anymore
about this forgotten war?
like some ghastly unreal dream
yet a century ago this vaunted
war that was to end all wars
had one more grim year to run
untold millions already dead
rivers of blood still to be shed.
The memorials are all around
in every city, village and town
monuments to the carnage
and bereavement scarring
this green and pleasant land
forever after it seemed then
though few now even look
at these sombre cenotaphs
the whole catastrophe
having been consigned
to the dustbin of history
or the dull factual pages
of high school textbooks.
Oh, our minds should be
haunted and full of ghosts
for across the Channel
not so far away in France
thousands of young men
were dying day after day.
Did they thus fall in vain
to be unremembered so?
Who of us cares anymore
about this forgotten war?
