Thursday, November 04, 2004

May I never, ever, ever lose this:

Arthur O'Shaughnessy. 1844–1881
6. Ode
WE are the music-makers,
And we are the dreamers 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 movers and shakers
Of the world for ever, it seems.

With wonderful deathless ditties
We build up 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 trample an empire down.

We, in the ages lying
In the buried past of the earth,
Built Nineveh with our sighing,
And Babel itself 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.

4 comments:

Josh said...

Random reference: the first lines were quoted by Gene Wilder in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory

Zev said...

Oren still has a soul. Yay!

jacob said...
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Oren said...

Josh: Gene wilder was quoted somewhere else, 10 points if you know where. (Zev, you should know....)