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]