The Mechanisms
Pellinore and the Beast
In Camlann town where I was born
There was a beast of iron
Three hundred years remained uncaught
But not for want of trying

Deep in the night it clanked and roared
It tore our town asunder
Of metal sheets, of bricks and stone
All building blocks did plunder

A price, a price, upon its head
A living wage forever
For any knight to strike it dead
Upon this grand endeavour

Go ready me my wheels of speed
My bandoliers and rifle
That I may ride to seek my prize
For all that's just and rightful

For two score years I tracked it down
I would not be outwitted
Though many times my spirit broke
My quest could not be quitted

It was the merry month of May
I found its wondrous dwelling
A bower of brick and burnished steel
Formed from our own town’s felling
The beast of iron, in times gone by
Created all things useful
It could not cease when the stores ran dry
Its beauty yet was truthful

And though I tried with all my might
I'd not the heart to kill it
For few can take a dying world
And still with beauty fill it