Too Far to Turn Back Now

TOO FAR TO TURN BACK NOW
© Stuart Markus, March 2017

At the Wilderness, General Grant he cried
at all the gallant men who’d died

And he cast his eyes at a thousand graves
in the great war to free the slaves

But he rose and made a vow,
“We’ve come too far to turn back now.”

Chorus:
Won’t turn back now, won’t turn back now
we’ve come too far to turn back now

After the Ardennes, Eisenhower paused
at all the sacrifice it caused

19,000 men, And half a million more
to end a genocidal war

But his task was, planning how
— they’d come too far to turn back now.

Chorus

In every age there’s a fight, for freedom and for right
As people rise to say, ‘you can’t take this away!’

Down in Birmingham, and in Washington
And the places rights were slowly won

Martin Luther King, and many others killed
To see the Dream of America fulfilled

And songs of hope they did endow –
We’ve come too far to turn back now

Chorus

Each time again we see that freedom isn’t free
And must defend, zealously, civil rights and liberty

Now we watch with dread, though we thought it dead
As thoughtless hatred rears its head

Like the good book warns, in words so sage
each generation, every age

We will renew a sacred vow –
We’ve come too far to turn back now.