Arthur William Edgar O'Shaughnessy (14 March 1844 – 30 January 1881 / London)

What do you think this poem is about?

We Are the Music-Makers

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.

Arthur William Edgar O'Shaughnessy
Submitted: Friday, January 03, 2003


Read poems about / on: dream, birth, music, world, song, moon, sea, city

Comments about this poem (We Are the Music-Makers by Arthur William Edgar O'Shaughnessy )

Enter the verification code :

  • Ed Yap (4/5/2010 11:06:00 PM)

    The version posted elsewhere on this site (http: //www.poemhunter.com/poem/ode-2/) is more correct. There, the sixth line reads, 'On whom the pale moon gleams' not 'Upon whom the pale moon gleams' as it appears here.

    2 person liked.
    0 person did not like.
  • Lorraine Margueritte Gasrel Black (8/5/2009 9:40:00 AM)

    One of my favorites.always a ten! ! !

    3 person liked.
    0 person did not like.
  • Shannon Warren (6/4/2004 7:58:00 AM)

    This isn't the full poem. Do you know of anywhere that has the full thing?

    1 person liked.
    0 person did not like.
Read all 3 comments »

PoemHunter.com Updates

Top 500 Poems

  1. Phenomenal Woman
    Maya Angelou
  2. Still I Rise
    Maya Angelou
  3. The Road Not Taken
    Robert Frost
  4. If You Forget Me
    Pablo Neruda
  5. Dreams
    Langston Hughes
  6. Annabel Lee
    Edgar Allan Poe
  7. If
    Rudyard Kipling
  8. I Do Not Love You Except Because I Love You
    Pablo Neruda
  9. I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings
    Maya Angelou
  10. A Dream Within A Dream
    Edgar Allan Poe
[Hata Bildir]