When I was Young
When I was young I loved a lad and gaily we was wed
I knew no greater pleasure than to follow where he led
But when he went away to war oh sorrow be to me
For you cannot follow soldiers bearing guns across the sea
They made him leave his wife and child to march on foreign lands
Can they make him stalk a stranger with a bayonet in his hands
What kind of man can force a man who's married to agree
To take the lives of men with wives bearing guns across the sea
I know no field more baron than this life I live alone
I know no sorrow greater than to see our growing son
Will he too become a lively man ‘til other men decree
That he lies still as his father does in a grave across the sea
Where I the wind I’d bring the cloud to lands that need the rain
Where I a bird I’d sing of things that comfort men in pain
Where I a statesman leading men in near or distant lands
I’d pass a law that only tools of peace be in our hands
