HOME, LAD, HOME

(lyrics Cicely Fox Smith,
set to music by Sarah Morgan,
as sung by Paul Sartin)


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]