Arthur O'Shaughnessy, 1844-81:
We are the music makers And we are the dreamers of dreams, Wandering by lonely sea-breakers, And sitting by desolate streams; World losers and world forsakers, On whom the pale moon gleams: Yet we are the movers and shakers Of the world, forever, it seems. With wonderful deathless ditties We build up with the world's great cities, And out of a fabulous story We fashion an empire's glory: One man with a dream, at pleasure Shall go forth and conquer a crown; And three with a new song's measure Can we trample an empire down. We in the ages lying, In the buried past of the earth, Built Nineveh with our sighing, And Babel with our mirth. And o'erthrew them with prophesying To the old of the new world's worth; For each age is a dream that is dying, Or one that is coming to birth.
Leave a comment