ode

arthur o'shaughnessy

we are the music makers

and we are the dreamer of dreams

wandering by lone sea breakers

and sitting by desolate streams

world losers and world forsakers

on whom the pale moon gleams

yet we are the mover and shakers

of the world forever it seems.

with wonderful deathless ditties

we build up the worlds great cities

and out of a fabulous story

we fashion an empires glory.

one man with a dream at pleasure

shall go forth and conquer a crown

and three with a new songs measure

can trample an empire down.

we, in the ages lying

in the buried past ofthe earth

built nineveh with our sighing

and babel itself with our mirth

and o'erthrew them with prophesying

to the old of the new worlds worth

for each age is a dream that is dying

or one that is coming to birth.

thats why.