Arthur O'Shaughnessy

Arthur William Edgar O'Shaughnessy (14 March 1844 – 30 January 1881) was a British poet and singer. Though relatively unknown during his own lifetime, his works gained posthumous fame in the 20th century.

Ode

 * "Ode" — Full text online at Wikisource

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.'''
 * '''We are the music makers,

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 a kingdom down.'''
 * '''With wonderful deathless ditties
 * At least as early as 1921 there seem to have arisen variants with "trample an empire down", but the 1847 original has "trample a kingdom down."

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.'''
 * We, in the ages lying

Is the life of each generation'''; A wondrous thing of our dreaming Unearthly, impossible seeming — '''The soldier, the king, and the peasant Are working together in one, Till our dream shall become their present, And their work in the world be done.'''
 * '''A breath of our inspiration

Of the goodly house they are raising; They had no divine foreshowing Of the land to which they are going: But '''on one man's soul it hath broken, A light that doth not depart; And his look, or a word he hath spoken, Wrought flame in another man's heart.'''
 * They had no vision amazing

With a past day's late fulfilling; And the multitudes are enlisted In the faith that their fathers resisted, And, scorning the dream of to-morrow, Are bringing to pass, as they may, In the world, for its joy or its sorrow, The dream that was scorned yesterday.
 * And therefore to-day is thrilling

Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see''', Our souls with high music ringing: O men! it must ever be That we dwell, in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. We are afar with the dawning And the suns that are not yet high, And out of the infinite morning Intrepid you hear us cry — How, spite of your human scorning, Once more God's future draws nigh, And already goes forth the warning That ye of the past must die.
 * '''But we, with our dreaming and singing,

From the dazzling unknown shore; '''Bring us hither your sun and your summers; And renew our world as of yore; You shall teach us your song's new numbers, And things that we dreamed not before: Yea, in spite of a dreamer who slumbers, And a singer who sings no more.'''
 * Great hail! we cry to the comers

Barcarolle


And lights that win are seen in strife with lights that die away.'''
 * '''The stars are dimly seen among the shadows of the bay,

And sweet the silence of the shores between the ebb and flow.
 * O precious is the pause between the winds that come and go,

Doth waft us on a golden wing towards a new horizon, That is the sun before our sight, the beacon for us burning, That is the star in all our night of watching and of yearning.
 * Spread sail! For it is Hope today that like a wind new-risen

We care not whither, know not who shall be at length the giver: For Love, — our life and all our years are cast upon the waves; Our heart is as the hand that steers; — but who is He that saves?'''
 * '''Love is this thing that we pursue today, tonight, for ever,