Armistice Day ( 1953 )

Robert William Service

Don’t jeer because we celebrate
            Armistice Day,
Though thirty years of sorry fate
            Have passed away.
Though still we gaurd the Sacred Flame,
            And fly the Flag,
That World War Two with grief and shame
            Revealed—a rag.
            
For France cannot defend to-day
            Her native land;
And she is far to proud to pray
            For helping hand.
Aye, though she stands amid the Free,
            In love with life,
No more her soil will shambles be
            In world-war strife.

Still we who tend the deathless Flame
            Of Verdun speak;
It is our glory and our shame,
            For we are weak.
We have too much of blood and blight
            To answer for . . .
No, France will never, never fight
            Another war!

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