Songfacts®:

• This song is about a young boy or girl who loses their father in the war. The line, "Did you hear the trumpets play the day your father died?" suggests a military funeral; "Did the drums in the street make the people dance, or fall to their knees as the sound" compares it to a leaf falling from a tree in the summer (tree = family tree). The child wishes it could be summer forever: "there must be somewhere... and the leaves don't abandon their trees to the light where the skies are clear and the summer never ends" because if summer didn't end no one would fall from life as leaves. However, the father will still be there when the child dies, the message being, don't fear death. >>>

  Suggestion credit:
  Michael - London, England