Army Of The Damned - Pythia, Brian Blessed

We are the army of the damned

Men of a far forgotten land

Thousands of years have passed us by

And still you will hear our cry

We left our homes to fight this war

We don’t remember what ‘twas for

Still we advance both day and night

Until the time comes to fight

And so they flee from us, our kindred and our kin

They will not stand for us and all that we have been

The blood will flow from us forever and a day

Our oaths are broken by their sins

We gave up all that we could give

So that our children could but live

We march forever to the drum

Of battle that will not come

We hear our lovers cry, though they are dead and gone

We hear our comrades sing that everlasting song

We cannot feel the sun though morning has just come

We are but shadows of the past

Will we find forgiveness, will we?

Will we find forgiveness, will we?

Have mercy on us Father forgive all these men

Who cannot feel the sun though morning has just come

We are but shadows of the past

We are the army of the damned

Men of a far forgotten land

What I would give to see her face

And love her once more

Brian Blessed recites Siegfried Sassoon’s poem

Suicide In The Trenches

I knew a simple soldier boy

Who grinned at life in empty joy

Slept soundly through the lonesome dark

And whistled early with the lark

In winter trenches, cowed and glum

With crumps and lice and lack of rum

He put a bullet through his brain

No one spoke of him again

You smug-faced crowds with kindling eye

Who cheer when soldier lads march by

Sneak home and pray you’ll never know

The hell where youth and laughter go