The Forerunner by Kahlil Gibran is a collection of mythic short stories and poems. ‘The Forerunner: His Parables and Poems.’ was published in 1920 by Knopf. It consists of twenty-three parables, one in which a king abandons his kingdom for the forest; another in which a saint meets a brigand and confesses to committing the same sins as the bandit; and a third in which a weathercock complains about the wind blowing in his face. The volume closes with a speech, “The Last Watch,” for the people of a sleeping city. Here is the short poem titled Tyranny:
THUS sings the She-Dragon that guards the seven caves by the sea:
“My mate shall come riding on the waves. His thundering roar shall fill the earth with fear, and the flames of his nostrils shall set the sky afire. At the eclipse of the moon we shall be wedded, and at the eclipse of the sun I shall give birth to a Saint George, who shall slay me.”
Thus sings the She-Dragon that guards the seven caves by the sea.
