Lena Guilbert Ford

Lena Guilbert Ford Poems

Lena Guilbert Ford Biography

Lena Gilbert Brown Ford (1870 – March 7, 1918) was a lyricist, best known for "Keep the Home Fires Burning" which she wrote during the First World War. She was born Lena Gilbert Brown in Venango County, Pennsylvania and attended Elmira College, graduating in 1887. She married physician Harry Hale Ford and settled in Elmira, later divorcing him and relocating, with her mother and son, to London, England, where they would remain for twenty years. During World War I, Ford opened her home to soldiers and took care of them. While in Britain she met Ivor Novello, with whom she collaborated to produce "Keep the Home Fires Burning" in 1914. It was the first major success for Novello and the only one for Ford. Among Ford's other published musical works are "When God Gave You to Me", "We Are Coming, Mother England", and "God Guard You" (with Westell Gordon). Ford and her thirty-year-old son Walter were the first United States citizens to become fatalities of a German air raid on London, their home being hit by one of two bombs that fell on the city on 7 March 1918. Mrs. Brown, Ford's mother, was only hurt in the bombing. Their remains were returned to and interred in the United States.)

The Best Poem Of Lena Guilbert Ford

Keep The Home-Fires Burning

Verse:

They were summoned from the hill-side,
They were called in from the glen,
And the Country found them ready
At the stirring call for men.

Let no tears add to their hardship;
As the Soldiers pass along
And although your heart is breaking,
Make it sing this cheery song.

Chorus:

Keep the Home-fires burning,
While your hearts are yearning,
Though your lads are far away
They dream of Home;
There's a silver lining
Through the dark cloud shining,
Turn the dark cloud inside out,
Till the boys come Home.

Verse:

Over seas there came a pleading
'Help a Nation in distress,'
And we gave our glorious laddies;
Honor made us do no less.

For no gallant Son of Freedom
To a tyrant's yoke should bend,
And a noble heart must answer
To the sacred call of 'Friend'.

Chorus:

Keep the Home-fires burning,
While your hearts are yearning,
Though your lads are far away
They dream of Home;
There's a silver lining
Through the dark cloud shining,
Turn the dark cloud inside out,
Till the boys come Home.

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