let the earth bear witness

On this remembrance day, a day when we remember the sacrifice made by many for freedom, we remember that the fight for freedom still goes on. I think this is an appropriate song for today.


The music is by Mike Scott of The Waterboys. The words are by William Butler Yeats (and George Moore).

A song from the play Cathleen ni Houlihan (1902), sung by the Poor Old Woman: 

They shall be remembered for ever,They shall be alive for ever,They shall be speaking for ever,The people shall hear them for ever. 

From "The Blood Bond," a song from the play (1901), by Yeats and Moore, lines sung by Diarmuid:

Let the sea bear witness,Let the wind bear witness,Let the earth bear witness,Let the fire bear witness,Let the dew bear witness,Let the stars bear witness! 

[Texts from William Butler Yeats, The Poems, ed. Richard J. Finneran (New York: Macmillan, 1983), 537, 538.]