Behind a trench in Flanders the
sun was dropping low,
With tramp, and creak and jingle I
heard the gun-teams go;
When something seemed to 'mind me, a-
-dreaming as I lay,
Of my own old Hampshire village at the
quiet end of day
Brown thatch with garden blooming with
lily and with rose,
And the co-ol shining river so
pleasant where he flows,
White fields of oats and barley, and
elderflowers like foam,
And the sky all gold with sunset, and the
horses going home
Home, lad, home, all a-
mong the corn and clover
Home, lad, home when the
time for work is over
Oh there's rest for horse and man when the
longest day is done
And they all go home together at the
setting of the sun
Oh Captain, Prince and Blossom, I
see them all so plain,
With tasseled ear-caps nodding a-
-long the leafy lane,
Somewhere a bird is calling, and the
swallow's flying low,
And the lads all sitting sideways and
singing as they go
Home, lad, home, all a-
mong the corn and clover
Home, lad, home when the
time for work is over
Oh there's rest for horse and man when the
longest day is done
And they all go home together at the
setting of the sun
Well gone is many a lad now, and
many a horse gone too,
Of all those lads and horses in
those old fields I knew;
There's Dick that died at Cuinchy and
Prince beside the guns
On the red road of glory, a
mile or two from Mons
Dead lads and shadowy horses -- I
see them just the same,
I see them and I know them, and
name them each by name,
Going down to shining waters when
all the West's a-glow,
And the lads all sitting sideways and
singing as they go
Home, lad, home ... with the
sunlight on their faces
Home, lad, home ... to the
quiet happy places
Th-ere's rest for horse and man ... when the
hardest fight is done,
And they all go home together at the
setting of the sun
Home, lad, home, all a-
mong the corn and clover
Home, lad, home when the
time for work is over
Oh there's rest for horse and man when the
longest day is done
And they all go home together at the
setting of the sun
recording: Belshazzar's Feast (2010) [YouTube]
source: original poem from Songs & Chanties (1919) [Google Books]
background: background on the poem and adaptation to song [All Poetry]
biography: poet Cecily Fox Smith (1882-1954) [Wikipedia]
biography: adapter and melodist Sarah Morgan (1948-2013) [Guardian]
biography: singer Paul Sartin (1971-2022) [Tradfolk]