I Didn't Raise My Boy to Be a Soldier

[Verse 1]

million soldiers to the war have gone

who may never return again

Ten million mothers hearts must break

for the one who died in vain

Head bowed down in sorrow in her lonely years

I heard a mother murmur through her tears

[Chorus]

I didn't raise my boy to be a soldier

I brought him up to be my pride and joy

Who dares to play so much without his soldier

to shoot the mother mother's dying boy

Let's take his lover raise his future brother

it's time to lay the sword and gun away

There'd be no war today if mothers all would say

I didn't raise my boy to be a soldier

[Verse 2]

What victory can cheer a mother's heart

when she looks at her blighted home

What victory can bring her back

all she cared to call her own

Let each mother answer in the years to be

remember that my boy belongs to me

[Chorus]

I didn't raise my boy to be a soldier

I brought him up to be my pride and joy

Who dares to play so much without his soldier

to shoot the mother mother's dying boy

Let's take his lover raise his future brother

it's time to lay the sword and gun away

There'd be no war today if mothers all would say

I didn't raise my boy to be a soldier

[Outro]

I didn't raise my boy to be a soldier

I brought him up to be my pride and joy

Who dares to play so much without his soldier

to shoot the mother mother's dying boy

Let's take his lover raise his future brother

it's time to lay the sword and gun away

There'd be no war today if mothers all would say

I didn't raise my boy to be a soldier