Before The Battle by Charles Dibdin

The signal to engage shall be
A whistle and a hollo ;
Be one and all but firm, like me.
And conquest soon will follow !
You, Gunnel, keep the helm in hand-
Thus, thus, boys ! steady, steady
Till right a-head you see the land,—
Then soon as we are ready,

— The signal to engage shall be
A whistle and a hollo ;
Be one and all but firm, like me,
And conquest soon will follow !

They joined for many reasons.
To march, to sail, to fly,
they went where they were posted
but nobody joins to die.

Their leaders talk on TV,
what else could we have done?
But those leaders lost no daughters
and none has lost a son.

So here's to all our soldiers,
wherever they may be.
Here's to all their families,
I raise a glass to thee.

So you were David’s father,
And he was your only son,
And the new-cut peats are rotting
And the work is left undone,
Because of an old man weeping,
Just an old man in pain,
For David, his son David,
That will not come again.

Oh, the letters he wrote you,
And I can see them still,
Not a word of the fighting,
But just the sheep on the hill
And how you should get the crops in
Ere the year get stormier,
And the Bosches have got his body,
And I was his officer.

By all the glories of the day
And the cool evening's benison,
By that last sunset touch that lay
Upon the hills where day was done,
By beauty lavisghly outpoured
And blessings carelessly received,
By all the days that I have lived
Make me a solider, Lord.

By all of man's hopes and fears,
And all the wonders poets sing,
The laughter of unclouded years,
And every sad and lovely thing;
By the romantic ages stored
With high endeavor that was his,
By all his mad catastrophes
Make me a man, O Lord.

Dark clouds are smouldering into red
While down the craters morning burns.
The dying soldier shifts his head
To watch the glory that returns;
He lifts his fingers toward the skies
Where holy brightness breaks in flame;
Radiance reflected in his eyes,
And on his lips a whispered name.