Sean Bean Honors Veteran’s Day With Gloomy 100-Year-Old Poetry [Video]

Actor Sean Bean commands absolute silence when he opens his mouth to speak, so you can only imagine what a boost poetry gives him on a day dedicated to remembering our heroic vets.

The British actor performed a poignant rendition of “Anthem for Doomed Youth,” just in time for Veterans Day. A bit of background on the poem – it was written in 1917 while poet Wilfred Owen was a patient at Craiglockhart War Hospital in Edinburgh recovering from shell shock. The poem is unique among the grit of the “war is hell” WWI litany of works by expressing explicitly anti-war themes, and questioning the unnecessary loss of life during the conflict.

Sean Bean has gone viral today with his own interpretation of the poem, shot against a stormy, gray backdrop. “Anthem for Doomed Youth” is read powerfully by Bean, who recorded it as an act of remembrance for Veterans Day (aptly called Remembrance Day in the UK).

It’s hard not to be moved by Bean’s reading of the poem, whether you’re remembering a fallen family member or friend or just simply showing support for our heroes.

Though Bean is a household name for performances in the Lord of the Rings films, HBO’s Game of Thrones, and as every English bad guy in an American film … ever, he has actually showed his poetry prowess before. He had a bit role in Kurt Wimmer’s 2002 sci-fi flick Equilibrium during which he also quite hauntingly read the W.B. Yeats poem “Aedh Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven” before being shot in the face by Christian Bale.

In any case, here’s Sean Bean’s excellent reading of “Anthem for Doomed Youth” in honor of Veterans Day. IQ sends its own humble gratitude to our enlisted heroes and vets.

[iframe src=”http://www.youtube.com/embed/KG19NnwovZk” width=”560″ height=”315″]