Ode (poem)

Ode (poem)

Ode is a poem written in 1874 by the English poet Arthur O'Shaughnessy. It is often referred to by its first line We are the music makers.

The Ode is the first poem in O'Shaughnessy's collection Music and Moonlight. It has nine stanzas, although it is commonly believed to be only three stanzas long. The opening stanza is:

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.

The phrase "movers and shakers" originates here.

The words have inspired many people and have been admired by many poets, including W. B. Yeats

The poem has been set to music, or alluded to, many times:

• Edward Elgar's The Music Makers, Op. 69, uses the entire poem.
• The Hungarian composer Zoltán Kodály also made a setting for and dedicated to Merton College, Oxford on the occasion of its 700th anniversary in 1964.
• English folk singer Vikki Clayton set the first three stanzas as the title track from her 1997 album 'Movers and Shakers'.