I heard my country calling, away across the sea,
Across the waste of waters she calls and calls to me.
If I should fall, should thy heart break,
Think only this: For England's sake!
If I should die, think only this of me;
That there's some corner of a foreign field that is forever England.
Her sword is girded at her side, her helmet on her head,
And round her feet are lying the dying and the dead.
I hear the noise of battle, the thunder of her guns,
I haste to thee my mother, a son among thy sons.
If I should die, think only this of me;
That there's some corner of a foreign field that is forever England.
In that rich earth, a richer dust concealed,
A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware, her ways to roam, breathing English air.
Sneak home and pray you'll never know
The Hell where youth and laughter go.