Green Island

Melody -

1. The island lies like
A leaf upon the sea.
Green island like
A leaf new-fallen from the tree.

2. Green turns to gold,
As morning breeze
Gently shakes the barley,
Bending the yellow corn.

3. Green turns to gold,
There's purple shadows
On the distant mountains,
Sun in the yellow corn.

4. They came in their long ships
From lands across the sea.
They came in their long ships
And they saw the land was green.

5. Wind in the barley,
Trout and salmon
Leaping in the rivers,
Sun in the yellow corn.

6. Leaping ashore
They slaughtered those
Laboured in the barley,
Scything them down like corn.

7. The long ships sailed away
And new invaders came.
With long bow and lance bringing
Death in England's name.
  8. With sword and with mace,
They went reaping
Though the fields of barley,
Blundering the yellow corn.

9. Crop followed crop,
They prospered in their killing
Fields of barley,
Harvest of new young corn.

10. Marching down the years
The men of war they came,
With bombs assassin's bullets,
Cs-gas and guns.

11. Ghosts from the past
Are chasing shadows
Through the fields of barley
Hiding in the new young corn.

12. Nine hundred years
They tried to trap the wind
That shakes the barley
Sun in the yellow corn.

13. The island lies
Like a leaf upon the sea.
Green island like
A leaf new-fallen from the tree.

14. Green turns to gold,
as morning breeze gently
Shakes the barley,
bending the yellow corn.

15. No force on Earth
can ever trap the wind
That shakes the barley
sun in the yellow corn.


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