• Drummer, beat, and piper, blow
    Harper, strike, and soldier, go
    Free the flame and sear the grasses
    Til the dawning Red Star passes.

    Honor those the dragon heeds
    In thought and favor, word and deed,
    Worlds are lost or worlds are saved
    From the dangers dragon-braved.

    Dragonman, avoid excess:
    Greed will bring the Weyr distress:
    To the ancient Law adhere
    Prospers thus the Dragonweyr.

    Holder, watch; Holder, learn
    Something new in every turn.
    Oldest may be coldest, too
    Sense the right: find the true!

    Black, blacker, blackest
    And cold beyond frozen things.
    Where is between when there is naught
    To life but fragile dragons' wings?

    Oh, Tongue, give sound to joy and sing
    Of hope and promise on dragonwing
    Lord of the Hold, your charge is sure
    In thick walls, metal doors, and no verdure

    Who wills,
    Can.
    Who tries,
    Does.
    Who loves,
    Lives.

    Wheel and turn
    Or bleed and burn.
    Fly between,
    Blue and green.
    Soar, dive down,
    Bronze and brown.
    Dragonmen must fly
    When threads are in the sky.

    Oh, Tongue, give sound to joy and sing
    Of hope and promise on dragonwing

    Then my feet took off and my legs went, too,
    So my body was obliged to follow me,
    With my hands and my mouth full of cress
    And my throat too dry to swallow.

    The little queen, all golden
    Flew hissing at the sea.
    To keep it back,
    To turn it back
    She flew forth bravely.

    Dragonman, Dragonman,
    Between thee and thine,
    Share me that glimpse of love
    Greater than mine.

    Harper, your song has a sorrowful sound,
    Though the tune was written as gay.
    Your voice is sad and your hands are slow
    And your eye meeting mine turns away...