A nation stands with heads bowed to remember

on a cold and wintry November

Distant guns in a city park salute and fire

as we remember the funeral pyre

War upon war as a nation, we have valiantly fought

has this great sacrifice been for nought?

Poppies are worn and bands do play

but what does all this ceremony say?

It is right that due repect be given to memories past

but was any conflict ever really the last?

Throughout the land monuments do abound

as bugles play their haunting sound

Names from plaques are read out loud

each with its own particular tone and sound

What do the voices of the fallen say to us?

Cut down in their prime, their lives laid to rest

Will war forever be for man some human pest?

These monuments are not for those who gave their all

They are for us to remember and pay tribute to their fall

Dead soldiers point their fingers and sternly warn

thisis the greatest folly of them all

These great conflicts have so little achieved

only we who lie beneath the earth and our bereaved