Songs were song during the battling of WWI by soldiers fighting. This page has the lyrics of some of the songs sung. Only parts of the song are given. To see the rest of the song, click on the link. When you get the the page link, you will then need to scroll down to find the song.

 

THE SOLDIER'S LETTER 
I've lost my rifle and bayonet,
I've lost my pull-through too, 
I've lost the socks that you sent me
That lasted the whole winter through, 
I've lost the razor that shaved me, 
I've lost my four-by-two, 
I've lost my hold-all and now I've got damn all 
Since I've lost you."
 
 
SING ME TO SLEEP 
 
Sing me to sleep where bullets fall, 
Let me forget the war and all; 
Damp is my dug-out, cold my feet, 
Nothing but bully and biscuits to eat. 
Over the sandbags helmets you'll find 
Corpses in front and corpses behind.
 
Rest of "Sing Me To Sleep"
 
 
AFTER LOOS 
 
Seven glasses used to be 
Called for six good mates and me --
Now we only call for three. 
 
Little crosses neat and white, 
Looking lonely every night, 
Tell of comrades killed in fight 
 
Rest of "After Loos"
 
 
THE OLE SWEATS 
 
WE'RE goin' easy now a bit, all dressed in blighty blue.* 
We've 'eld the trenches eighteen months and 
copped some packets too, 
We've met the Boches on the Marne and fought 
them on the Aisne, 
We broke 'em up at New Chapelle and 'ere we 
are again. 
 
Rest of "The Ole Sweats"
 
 
LA BASSEE ROAD 
 
YOU'LL see from the La Bassée Road, 
on any summer's day, 
The children herding nanny-goats, 
the women  making hay.
You'll see the soldiers, khaki clad, 
in column and platoon, 
Come swinging up La Bassée Road 
from billets in Bethune. 
There's hay to save and corn to cut, 
but harder work by far 
 
Rest of "La Bessee Road"
 
 
 
A LAMENT 
 
I WISH the sea were not so wide 
That parts me from my love; 
I wish the things men do below 
Were known to God above. 
 
Rest of "A Lament"
 
 
THE NIGHT BEFORE AND THE NIGHT 
AFTER THE CHARGE 
 
ON sword and gun the shadows reel and riot, 
A lone breeze whispers at the dug-out door, 
The trench is silent and the night is quiet, 
And boys in khaki slumber on the floor. 
A sentinel on guard, my watch I keep 
And guard the dug-out where my 
comrades sleep. 
 
Rest of "The night before and the night after the change"
 
 
IT'S A FAR, FAR CRY 
 
My heart is sick of the level lands, 
Where the wingless windmills be, 
Where the long-nosed guns from dusk to dawn
 
Rest of "It's a far, far cry"
 
 
OFF DUTY 
 
THE night is full of magic, and the moonlit 
dewdrops glisten 
Where the blossoms close in slumber and the 
questing bullets pass -- 
Where the bullets hit the level I can hear them 
as I listen, 
Like a little cricket concert, chirping chorus in 
the grass. 
 
Rest of "Off Duty"
 
 
I OFT GO OUT AT NIGHT-TIME 
 
I OFT go out at night-time 
When all the sky's a-flare 
And little lights of battle 
Are dancing in the air. 
 
Rest of "I oft go out at night-time"
 
 
THE CROSS 
 
THE cross is twined with gossamer, -- 
The cross some hand has shaped with care, 
And by his grave the grasses stir 
But he is silent sleeping there.
 
Rest of "The Cross"
 
 
THE TOMMY'S LAMENT 
 
I FANCY it's not 'arf my chance 
To go on plodding 'neath my pack, 
Parading like a snail through France, 
My house upon my bloomin' back. 
 
Rest of "The Tommy's Lament"
 
 
 
MARCHING 
 
FOUR by four, in column of route, 
By roads that the poplars sentinel, 
Clank of rifle and crunch of boot -- 
All are marching and all is well. 
 
Rest of "Marching"
 
 
IN FAIRYLAND 
 
THE field is red with poppy flowers, 
Where mushroom meadows stand; 
It's only seven fairy hours 
From there to Fairyland. 
 
Rest of "In Fairyland"
 
 
SPOILS OF WAR 
 
I HAVE a big French rifie, its stock is riddled 
clean, 
And shrapnel-smashed its barrel, likewise its 
magazine. 
I've lugged it from Bethune to Loos and back 
from Loos again, 
 
Rest of "Spoils of War"
 
 
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