Forty Years On
Composer(s): John Farmer
Performer(s): Reggie Goff



Forty years on, when afar and asunder
Parted are those who are singing today
When you look back, and forgetfully wonder
What you were like in your work and your play
Then, it may be, there will often come o'er you
Glimpses of notes like the catch of a song  
Visions of boyhood shall float them before you
Echoes of dreamland shall bear them along

Chorus
Follow up! Follow up! Follow up! Follow up! Follow up! 
Till the field ring again and again
With the tramp of the twenty-two men
Follow up! Follow up!

Routs and discomfitures, rushes and rallies
Bases attempted, and rescued, and won
Strife without anger, and art without malice
How will it seem to you, forty years on? 
Then, you will say, not a feverish minute
Strained the weak heart and the wavering knee
Never the battle raged hottest, but in it
Neither the last nor the faintest, were we!

Chorus

O the great days, in the distance enchanted
Days of fresh air, in the rain and the sun
How we rejoiced as we struggled and panted
Hardly believable, forty years on! 
How we discoursed of them, one with another
Auguring triumph, or balancing fate
Loved the ally with the heart of a brother
Hated the foe with a playing at hate!

Chorus

Forty years on, growing older and older
Shorter in wind, as in memory long
Feeble of foot, and rheumatic of shoulder
What will it help you that once you were strong? 
God give us bases to guard or beleaguer
Games to play out, whether earnest or fun
Fights for the fearless, and goals for the eager
Twenty, and thirty, and forty years on!

Chorus

Blazoned in honour! For each generation
You kindled courage to stand and to stay
You led our fathers to fight for the nation
Called "Follow up" and yourself showed the way
We who were born in the calm after thunder
Cherish our freedom to think and to do
If in our turn we forgetfully wonder
Yet we'll remember we owe it to you