Priest Elnora · 17 October 2000

This is a beautiful Poem. I have been looking for a long time for the complete poem. I think this poem really speaks to me. Thanks for posting it.

Elnora

Longardner Curt · 10 October 2002

…I came across this poem in its entirety just today by chance. For years my wife and I have know it only through the first two lines which are in the screenplay “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory”.

William Johns · 2 April 2003

[independently submission of same poem]

Don’t ask me what this is supposed to mean, but it strikes a chord in me
- perhaps because I have been far too many times accused of being nothing more than a “dreamer of dreams”. This poem somehow exonerates me.

I found this poem on the back of a box of tea, I forget the brand, but it was that famous one with all the weird flavours. This came off a box of Bengal Spice, if I recall.

Bill

Phone Op · 11 June 2003

I attach an even more literal meaning behind the poem. Myth-makers, storytellers, poets, musicians and writers among other artists have had, since the birth of civilization, the ability to affect the course of history to an extent often greater than the mightiest statesman or warrior. It is often said that history is written by the winner; I would argue that it is the writer of the history that wins. Ideas are many times more powerful than actions, demonstrated throughout history as powerful individuals sought to maintain thier power through harnessing or abolishing any who spoke against the establishment. One such world-changing example of the power of an idea and those who spread it can be witnessed in the amazing effect of the Christian Bible and its proponents throughout the course of the last two thousand years of western culture. This beautiful piece shouts of the amazing influence of those oft-overlooked “movers and shakers” who sing the songs that truly build our empires or destroy them.

-Chandra

Ed · 2 September 2003

No one has mentioned the fact that this poem was the basis for Sir Edward Elgar’s “The Music Makers” for chorus, soloists and orchestra. In it, he quotes many of his earlier (and probably better) musical works such as The Enigma Variations theme and “Nimrod” Variation, the two Symphonies and Sea Pictures in addition to “Rule Brittania” and the Marseilles.

Ed

Jeffery Colkmire · 6 September 2003

[independently submission of same poem]

Don’t ask me what this is supposed to mean, but it strikes a chord in me

- perhaps because I have been far too many times accused of being nothing

more than a “dreamer of dreams”. This poem somehow exonerates me.

I found this poem on the back of a box of tea, I forget the brand, but

it was that famous one with all the weird flavours. This came off a box

of Bengal Spice, if I recall.

Bill

“We are the dreamers of dreams…………”

I too have been told this literally all my life. A daydreamer.

It was on the back of a box of Celestial Seasonings tea. I don’t recall what my flavor was, but the first two lines of the poem stuck with me for 3 decades before I finally found it again. Unfortunately, CS tea doesn’t print quotes like this anymore. At least none I’ve seen.

Jeffery Colkmire

Kalbaugh James M. GS11 · 25 November 2003

entire poem …

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 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 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.
A breath of our inspiration,
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.
They had no vision amazing
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 broke,
A light that doth not depart
And his look, or a word he hath spoken,
Wrought flame in another man’s heart.
And therefore today is thrilling,
With a past day’s late fulfilling.
And the multitudes are enlisted
In the faith that their fathers resisted,
And, scorning the dream of tomorrow,
Are bringing to pass, as they may,
In the world, for it’s joy or it’s sorrow,
The dream that was scorned yesterday.
But we, with our dreaming and singing,
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.
For 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.
Great hail! we cry to the corners
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 dreamt not before;
Yea, in spite of a dreamer who slumbers,
And a singer who sings no more.

Ananda · 22 June 2005

I attach an even more literal meaning behind the poem. Myth-makers, storytellers, poets, musicians and writers among other artists have had, since the birth of civilization, the ability to affect the course of history to an extent often greater than the mightiest statesman or warrior. It is often said that history is written by the winner; I would argue that it is the writer of the history that wins. Ideas are many times more powerful than actions, demonstrated throughout history as powerful individuals sought to maintain thier power through harnessing or abolishing any who spoke against the establishment. One such world-changing example of the power of an idea and those who spread it can be witnessed in the amazing effect of the Christian Bible and its proponents throughout the course of the last two thousand years of western culture. This beautiful piece shouts of the amazing influence of those oft-overlooked “movers and shakers” who sing the songs that truly build our empires or destroy them.

-Chandra

ACTION is always there.
A fact worht more than a thousand words.
We talk from brow to brow and listen with our eyes… how can we keep our love secret?

Nick Lee · 23 November 2005

My sincere thanks to James Kalbaugh for giving us the full version of Arthur O’Shaugnessy’s beautiful poem. It has always been a favourite of mine, but this is the first time that I have seen it in full. Having seen it, I now place O’Shaughnessy among the ‘greats, not just as a poet, but as an inspired visionary.
Nicholas Lee

Rachelle Alexander · 21 April 2006

Would you mind telling me where you found the full version of this poem? I have the first three verses in a book of poetry printed in 1902 and had seen the full version or most of it in a piece of music written by Koday.

Thanks, Rachelle

Cynthia BOEHLERT · 3 July 2006

It was kind of you to share this ode I am very interested in reading it unfortunately I find it impossible to read with the dark background. Please help! thanks

Avril Tyrrell · 18 October 2006

Some 57 years ago,as office workers in London,a like minded teen aged friend and I would sometimes economise on our very modest lunch funds and use the proceeds to buy a ticket and climb to “the gods” for the Promenade Concerts at the Albert Hall.

One most memorable concert was Elgar’s “The Music Makers”, well worth the hour and a half spent standing in line outside and the sacrificed lunch. A memory that enriches my life today.

Avril

Chris · 2 February 2007

Thank you so much for posting this poem. And especially thank you to the gentleman who posted it in its entirety.

Beautiful.

Jouade Benjelloun · 4 April 2007

hi i read u comment about the the poem of music and moonlight and i need u r help can u help me in analzing this poem please add my msn addres “ i hope u rply on u r message thx alot

Ash Srinivasan · 17 September 2007

hello,

i’ve been searching for the full version of this excruciatingly beautiful poem for some time. my thanks to james kalbaugh for giving us the entire version of this work, which is not just art, but something that exonerates people individually. for this is a universal poem that appeals to the dreamer who resides in all of us.

i have just one question - i recall one line of the poem being slightly different from the way james kalbaugh has presented it.

‘great hail! we cry to the corners
from the dazzling unknown shores’

i remember it as being

‘great hail! we cry to the newcomers
from the dazzling unknown shores’

any thoughts on this, anyone?

cheers,

ash