“Ode (We are the music makers)” Introduction

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“Ode (We are the music makers)” Summary

“Ode (We are the music makers)” Themes

• 

  The Revolutionary Power of Art

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  Artistic Isolation and Connection

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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Ode (We are the music makers)”

• Lines 1-8

  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.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 9-16

  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 a kingdom down.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 17-20

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

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 21-24

  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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• Lines 25-32

  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.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 33-40

  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 broken,
      A light that doth not depart;
  And his look, or a word he hath spoken,
      Wrought flame in another man's heart.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 41-48

  And therefore to-day 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 to-morrow,
      Are bringing to pass, as they may,
  In the world, for its joy or its sorrow,
      The dream that was scorned yesterday.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 49-56

  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.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 57-64

  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.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 65-72

  Great hail! we cry to the comers
      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.

  

  

  

  

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“Ode (We are the music makers)” Symbols

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  Oceans and Rivers

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  The Moon

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  The Sun, Light, and Fire

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  Cities and Buildings

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  Music and song

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“Ode (We are the music makers)” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

• Alliteration

  

  

  

  

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• Allusion

  

  

  

  

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• Apostrophe

  

  

  

  

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• Assonance

  

  

  

  

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• Metaphor

  

  

  

  

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• Sibilance

  

  

  

  

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• Metonymy

  

  

  

  

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• Repetition

  

  

  

  

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“Ode (We are the music makers)” Vocabulary

Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

• Desolate
• Forsakers
• Fashion
• Measure
• Nineveh and Babel
• Mirth
• O'erthrew
• Goodly
• Foreshowing
• Hath, doth
• Ceaseless
• Ye
• Intrepid
• Nigh
• Hither
• Yore
• Numbers
• Yea

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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Ode (We are the music makers)”

• Form

• Meter

• Rhyme Scheme

“Ode (We are the music makers)” Speaker

“Ode (We are the music makers)” Setting

Literary and Historical Context of “Ode (We are the music makers)”

More “Ode (We are the music makers)” Resources

• External Resources

  • A Short Biography — Check out Britannica's entry on O'Shaughnessy.

  • Gene Wilder Quotes the Poem — Gene Wilder, playing Willy Wonka, recites an excerpt from the poem. Just one demonstration of the mark the "Ode" has left on language and popular culture!

  • The Aphex Twin Version of the Poem — A recent take on the poem by the ambient band Aphex Twin. O'Shaughnessy's most famous poem continues to leave its mark on art even today.

  • An Essay on the Poem's Afterlife — Dr. Jordan Kistler, an O'Shaughnessy scholar, on how this poem has been received and remembered. A lot of people know this poem, but few know who wrote it!

  • A Reading of the Poem — Hear the full poem read aloud.