Like the Worm of Wear, this Dragon drear,
Hath grown, and grown, and grown, Sir,
And many a lair of dim despair
The Worm hath made its own, Sir.
In Bethnal Green our Laidly Worm
Hath made a loathly den,
And there hath fed for a weary term
On the bodies and souls of men.
There doth it writhe, and ramp, and slower,
Whilst in its coils close prest