"The guns thundered endlessly,
Pitting holes all over the ground;
Yet that was a few years ago
And now this grassy hill utters no sound
"That is akin to the terror
That once sounded here long ago
As soldiers on both sides
Died in trying to defeat the foe.
"Yet in this grassy, peaceful land
Where red poppies dance in the breeze,
Once, men were cruelly butchered
So that other nations might be free.
"Upon this green hill
Where birds twitter in the trees,
Once cacophony reigned
And there was never a moment of peace.
"Then the ground shook
With the rumbles of artillery
While men charged again and again
Only to be slaughtered brutally.
"This place, then, was not green
But an ugly, muddy color
While men's blood poured out
As in their death throes they suffered.
"Pain! Death! And all for what?
What reason is there in this gory?
Many of them might have asked,
Gone from them dreams of glory
"As they only tried to stay alive
In this hell-wrought ruin
That in their worse dreams never imagined
Could be this terrible destruction.
"Silence, here, it never was
Nor was peace to be found
In this place accursed by all
Where endlessly was heard the sounds
"Of men dying, bleeding in agony
As the gun thundered incessantly
And their victims' screams rent the air,
A hellish combination frightening.
"Now, there is no noise
That is akin to the terror raged then
As they fought and died
To set free captive nations.
"Here, the sun shines warmly
And the poppies dance in the breeze
As no sound disturbs the sacred silence
Save the birds up in the trees.
"If you look out, you will see
There, on the plain where so many died,
Which is now grown over with grass
Thousands of white crosses lie;
"The only thing remaining
As a reminder of what happened here
Where men fought and died
In endless agony of fear.
"Yet if one is very still,
One can hear them crying out;
In the silence of their deaths,
One might still hear them shout:
"'Have we died unsung, unhonoured?
Our graves here lie unnumbered.
Did we give our all, our lives even,
For a fruitless war fought in vain?'
"Though wars may come again,
And it is certain they will,
No, they did not die in vain.
We shall always remember this sacred hill
"That marks their final resting place,
A peaceful cemetery
Instead of a war-torn plain.
That all will remember eternally."