The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #92616   Message #1772157
Posted By: CeltArctic
29-Jun-06 - 02:19 PM
Thread Name: Songs about World War I
Subject: Lyr Add: VALLEY OF THE SHADOW (Paul Clark)
I got this off of a John Roberts and Tony Barrand album:

VALLEY OF THE SHADOW
By Paul Clark (for a play called 'Days of Pride' produced in 1981)

Our great attack had failed
We'd nothing left to give.
The wounded hanging on the wire
Had little time to live.
The German shells came screaming down
To shred them as they lay
Abandoned in the Valley of the Shadow.

The battle ground that night
Would look as bright as day,
As fairy flares turned blackness
Into bitter lifeless gray.
The twisted shapes that once were men
In senseless patterns lay--
The tenants of the Valley of the Shadow.

The torn and shattered fields,
The bits of wire and steel;
No blade of grass, nor leaf, nor tree
To make the place seem real.
An Ancient traveler passing by
Just couldn't help but say,
"This surely is the Valley of the Shadow."

Let pictures of this scene
Be hung on every wall
In rooms where Governments decide
When men should stand or fall.
We'd never go to war again
If leaders had their say,
While looking at the Valley of the Shadow.