W&m Graham Seal May 2020
Disinherited sons of the British middle and upper classes were a common feature on the many roads, railways and seaways of the empire in the nineteenth century. They were a recognised group, sometimes called the 'legion of the lost' and were written about by Rudyard Kipling, among others. World War 1 finished many of them off.
The ways of the world run far and wide
The empire’s roads are long
When the elder brother holds the family wealth
The younger must be gone
There’s no warm chair by the fireside
Nowhere to call your own
To the ends of the earth to the end of your days
You never can go home
Chorus
On the winding trail and the lonely track
The second son must roam
Dig or drill or dive or drove
Wherever they need a rough hand
Through a thousand brawls in a thousand bars
Settle things man to man
But when that letter comes in your sisters’ hand
To some forsaken mining camp
Eyes grow bright in the dim lamplight
And you curse the fate of a tramp
On the winding trail and the lonely track
The second son must roam
You’re the first to answer your country’s call
The first to enlist in the fight.
You’re already a soldier in a legion lost
A bit more trouble seems ‘alright’
But the bloody war drags on until
Your last lucky day
They invalid you out with a medal on your chest.
And a shaking that never goes away
On the winding trail and the lonely track
The second son must roam
Near the end of the day as the evening fades
In the whisky’s rosy glow
Smoke a quiet pipe and dream upon
That life you never could know
But you did your duty manfully
You bore that heavy load
You lived the life of the roving kind
And you’ll die on the empire’s roads
On the winding trail and the lonely track
The second son must roam 3x
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