The Dragons Are Singing Tonight

(God Speed by Edmund Blair-Leighton,
1853-1922, English painter)

THE DRAGONS ARE SINGING TONIGHT

Tonight is the night all dragons
Awake in their lairs underground,
To sing in cacophonous chorus
And fill the whole world with their sound.

They sing of the days of their glory,
They sing of their exploits of old,
Of maidens and knights, and of fiery fights,
And guarding vast caches of gold.

Some of their voices are treble,
And some of their voices are deep,
And all of their voices are thunderous,
And no one can get any sleep.

I lie in my bed and I listen,
Enchanted and filled with delight,
To songs I can hear only one night a year ─
The dragons are singing tonight.

~ Jack Prelutsky, b. 1940, American poet