“I was delighted to be asked by English Heritage to write a poem about St George. There is no country more beautiful than England in April. I believe we should celebrate its landscape, and its flora and fauna through St George’s Day.  I’ve taken liberties with the story of St George and the Dragon, but hope I can be forgiven for harnessing the dragon to the natural world. The poem also purposely echoes a line each from two of our greatest English poets, Shakespeare (whose birthday falls on St George’s Day) and John Keats.”

 

THE TRUE DRAGON

 St George was out walking

He met a dragon on a hill,

It was wise and wonderful

Too glorious to kill

 

It slept amongst the wild thyme

Where the oxlips and violets grow

Its skin was a luminous fire

That made the English landscape glow

 

Its tears were England’s crystal rivers

Its breath the mist on England’s moors

Its larder was England’s orchards,

Its house was without doors

 

St George was in awe of it

It was a thing apart

He hid the sleeping dragon

Inside every English heart

 

So on this day let’s celebrate

England’s valleys full of light,

The green fire of the landscape

Lakes shivering with delight

 

Let’s celebrate St George’s Day,

The dragon in repose;

The brilliant lark ascending,

The yew, the oak, the rose

 

Brian Patten