So an age ended, and its last deliverer died

In bed, grown idle and unhappy; they were safe:

The sudden shadow of a giant's enormous calf

Would fall no more at dusk across their lawns outside.

They slept in peace: in marshes here and there no doubt

A sterile dragon lingered to a natural death,

But in a year the slot had vanished from the heath;

A kobold's knocking in the mountain petered out.

Only the sculptors and the poets were half-sad,

And the pert retinue from the magician's house

Grumbled and went elsewhere. The vanquished powers were glad

To be invisible and free; without remorse

Struck down the silly sons who strayed into their course,

And ravished the daughters, and drove the fathers mad.