“The Dragon and the Undying,” Siegfried Sassoon

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The Dragon and the Undying

All night the flares go up; the Dragon sings

And beats upon the dark with furious wings;

And, stung to rage by his own darting fires,

Reaches with grappling coils from town to town;

He lusts to break the loveliness of spires,

And hurls their martyred music toppling down.

Yet, though the slain are homeless as the breeze,

Vocal are they, like storm-bewilder’d seas.

Their faces are the fair, unshrouded night,

And planets are their eyes, their ageless dreams.

Tenderly stoopi...