When the Regiment Came Back

All the uniforms were blue, all the swords were bright and new, / When the regiment went marching down the street, / All the men were hale and strong as they proudly moved along, / Through the cheers that drowned the music of their feet. / Oh the music of the feet keeping time to drums that beat, / Oh the splendour and the glitter of the sight, / As with swords and rifles new and in uniforms of blue / The regiment went marching to the fight!

When the regiment came back all the guns and swords were black / And the uniforms had faded out to gray, / And the faces of the men who marched through that street again / Seemed like faces of the dead who lose their way. / For the dead who lose their way cannot look more wan and gray. / Oh the sorrow and the pity of the sight, / Oh the weary lagging feet out of step with drums that beat, / As the regiment comes marching from the fight.