THE DREAMER OF DREAMS.
I
‘We are men in a world of men, not gods!’ the Strong Man cried;
‘Yea, men, but more than men,’ the Dreamer of Dreams replied;
‘'Tis not the mighty Arm (the Lion and Bear have that),
Tis not the Ear and the Eye (for those hath the Ounce and the Cat),
'Tis not the form of a Man upstanding erect and free,
For this hath the forest Ape, yea, the face of a Man hath he;
'Tis not by these alone, ye compass'd the mighty things,
Hew'd the log to a ship, till the ship swept out on wings,
Ye are men in a world of men, lord of the seas and streams,
But ye dreamed ye were more than men when ye heark'd to the Dreamers of Dreams!
And the Dream begat the Deed, and grew with the growth of the years,
So ye were the Builders of Earth, but we were the Pioneers!
II
‘By the Arm and the Ear and the Eye, and the upright Form divine’
(Thus the Dreamer of Dreams), ‘thou hast conquered the world—’tis thine;
Wherefore rejoice, O Man, in the wonders thy might hath wrought,
But woe to thy pride the day thou forgettest the Dream we brought;
The Dream that made thee a Man (the beast was as swift in the fray),
The Dream that found thee a Soul, and lit thee along on thy way,
The Dream that guided thine Arm, and taught thee with sight and with sound,
The Dream that held thee erect when the beast was prone on the ground!
A man in a world of men, and strong as a man beseems,
Thou art indeed, but thy strength was drawn from the Dreamers of Dreams!
Wert thou no more than a man, the Fox and the Ape were thy peers,
We dream'd thou wast more than a man, when we led thee, thy Pioneers!
III
‘And now thy triumph hath come, the sceptre is set in thy hand,
See’ (said the Dreamer of Dreams) ‘that thy spirit doth understand:
Not by the lust of the Ape, or the courage and strength of the Beast,
Thou risest to rule thy Realm, and sit at the head of the Feast—
We dream'd there was love in thy heart, the love that no beast doth gain,
We held thee just in our Dream, and therefore fitter to reign,
And though there was blood on thy sword, and lust of blood in thy breast,
We taught thee (still in our Dream) that Pity and Prayer were best:
Pity for all thy kind, and most for the undertrod,
Prayer to the Power unseen which stiffen'd thy soul 'gainst God,
Then out of the Dream the Deed, which grew with the growing years
And made thee Master of Earth, but we were thy Pioneers!’
IV
‘We are men in a world of men, not gods,’ the Strong Man cried.
‘Then woe to thy race and thee,’ the Dreamer of Dreams replied;
‘The Tiger can fight and feed, the Serpent can hear and see,
The Ape can increase his kind, the Beaver can build, like thee.
Have I led thee on to find thee of all things last and least,
A Man who is only a Man and therefore less than a beast?
Who bareth a red right arm, and crieth “Lo! I am strong;”
Who shouts to an empty sky a savage triumphal song,
Who apes the cry of the woods, who crawls like a snake and lies,
Who loves not, neither is loved, but crawleth a space and dies?—
Ah, woe indeed to the Dream that guided thee all these years,
And woe to the Dreamers of Dreams who ran as thy Pioneers!’
