Dying day in late October
Gaunt the trees and stark the twilight
Crow and raven perch now sated
Worm now rises in his seeking
Fox and badger sniff the death scent
Here where salmon stream bends crooked
Spilling over moss-grown weir-side
Past the Roman Wall now broken
Down where altars lay forgotten
Came the young and mighty warlord
Sword in sheath like moonlight gleaming
Torque at neck like sunlight golden
Riding with his band of brothers
Hawk on wrist and hound at fetlock
Riding to his death at Camlann
Waiting were the painted foemen
Hid in ambush deep in forest
Blood-red now the river running
Stained with gore from many war-men
Lying slain in trampled bracken
Fallen are the leaves of autumn
Great oak weeps with tears of resin
Pierced where wayward arrow struck her
Shielded are her scattered acorns
Covered by the bodies tumbled