Childhood's End Lyrics

We laid the last old soldier to rest today A lingering relic of the older way There were no muffled rolls of drums and no flags did wave In the breeze that was not blowing And on the spot where he was laid we lit a flame To burn forever more until the end of time To all the other soldiers known and unnamed No gun salute was fired, no Last Post playing Childhood's End was long in coming But come it must for all our fear For all our vanity, for all our stumbling Childhood's End is drawing near And a silent prayer was said by those who have something to pray to While the rest of us joined hands and softly sang And asked forgiveness from the dead for millennia of killing For we knew now where the blame lay And on the spot where he was laid we lit a flame To burn forever more until the end of time To all the other soldiers known and unnamed No gun salute was fired, no Last Post playing Childhood's End was long in coming But come it must for all our fear For all our vanity, for all our stumbling Childhood's End is drawing near