Take up the Time Lord's burden-
Send forth the best, ye breed!
Go bind your son to exile
To serve the mortals' need;
And bar him from the TARDIS,
In territory wild,
To serve a sullen people,
Half-soldier and half-child.
Take up the Time Lord's burden-
In patience to abide,
To save the Earth from terror
With guns on either side;
And with his speech translated:
"Reverse the neutron flow!"
He seeks a planet's profit,
And the planet profit shows.
Take up the Time Lord's burden
And bid him kill for peace,
Put out the eye of Davros
And make the horror cease;
But when your goal is nearest
The end he for you sought,
Watch Prescience and Conscience
Bring all your hopes to naught.
Take up the Time Lord's burden-
A tawdry search for kings!
Now bid him find the Founder,
And bid his feet have wings.
Send him and his past brethren
To the place you fear to tread
And mark then with the living
The ground where rest your dead.
Take up the Time Lord's burden
And grant him no reward;
For once he finds a respite
You must take him under guard
And tell him of his future,
That bitter endless night,
But the truth he will discover,
And rage against your might.
Take up the Time Lord's burden
And burden him once more,
As all the past and future
Go flying off to war;
But by all words you whisper,
By all the things you do,
The son of Kasterborous
Shall judge gods he once knew.
Take up the Time Lord's burden-
Have done with childish days;
Those worshipful companions,
You once deserved their praise.
Go now, and roam the cosmos
Through all the thankless years,
Cold, edged with dear-bought wisdom,
And bereft now of your peers!