We Are the Music-Makers

Arthur William Edgar O'Shaughnessy 1844 (London) – 1881 (London)



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,
Upon 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 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.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on May 03, 2023

44 sec read
1,362

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABABABAB CCDDEFEF GHGHGHGH
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 793
Words 144
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 8, 8, 8

Arthur William Edgar O'Shaughnessy

Arthur William Edgar O'Shaughnessy was a British poet and herpetologist. Of Irish descent, he was born in London. He is most remembered for his Ode, beginning with the words "We are the music makers, / And we are the dreamers of dreams", which has been set to music by several composers including Edward Elgar as (as The Music Makers), Zoltán Kodály, Alfred Reed and, more recently, Aphex Twin. more…

All Arthur William Edgar O'Shaughnessy poems | Arthur William Edgar O'Shaughnessy Books

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    "We Are the Music-Makers" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 31 Oct. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/4046/we-are-the-music-makers>.

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