Swansong of the Dragon

In the night visions I beheld
A terror too terrible to tell
A dreadful dragon as it fell
And dragged behind it the heat of Hell

Its head was bruised and beaten in
The mortal wound worked within
To bring about the serpent’s end
Twas not a question of “if?” but “when?”

But before his grip on life slipped on
He cried out in a voice vile and strong
And the length of the fall that he fell was so long
That he had time to compose a corrupted song

“I fall! I fall! As I fell before
But now I fall forevermore
And the guilt and the blame and the shame that I bore
Are now exceeded an hundred times more

“But, though I go now to my doom,
The doom that down through the ages has loomed,
I have done all I could to make plenty of room
For those who would follow me down to my tomb

“Many I called, and many enticed
Many I baited with the virtues of vice
Many gave in, though they turned me down twice
At last they headed my harmful advice

“I seduced many more with ill-gotten gain
I ensnared them with vows of evading all pain
I gave lust and greed and everything vain
They loved me and mine, and welcomed my reign

“O what a ploy! O what a scheme!
With my cunning and with my wit oh so keen
I granted them more than they ever could dream
Now I must grant them my end, it seems

“That is what makes my deception so great
That they now must share in my torturous fate
They have seen the Truth now, but they saw It too late
I convinced them all that the Truth could wait.”

So singing, he fell away too far to hear
But it chilled my heart that his was so cheered
And my soul could not shake the terrible fear
Instilled by that dreadful song and drear

For, though ‘tis a vacant victory
Yet, it is much more than it should be
For the dragon’s vile and gluttonous greed
Cannot quench the Truth that makes men free

It is my own silence that allows him to sing
Our stifled speech lets his report ring
Oh, how dreadful and dire a thing
When the song of the dragon drowns the Truth of the King