And the age ended, and the last deliverer died. <br />In bed, grown idle and unhappy; they were safe: <br />The sudden shadow of the giant's enormous calf <br />Would fall no more at dusk across the lawn outside. <br /> <br />They slept in peace: in marshes here and there no doubt <br />A sterile dragon lingered to a natural death, <br />But in a year the spoor had vanished from the heath; <br />The kobold's knocking in the mountain petered out. <br /> <br />Only the sculptors and the poets were half sad, <br />And the pert retinue from the magician's house <br />Grumbled and went elsewhere. The vanished powers were glad <br /> <br />To be invisible and free: without remorse <br />Struck down the sons who strayed their course, <br />And ravished the daughters, and drove the fathers mad.<br /><br />WH Auden<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/in-the-time-of-war-xii/
