Voltairine de Cleyre

I Am

I am! The ages on the ages roll: 

And what I am, I was, and I shall be: 

by slow growth filling higher Destiny, 

And Widening, ever, to the widening Goal. 

I am the Stone that slept; down deep in me 

That old, old sleep has left its centurine trace; 

I am the plant that dreamed; and lo! still see 

That dream-life dwelling on the Human Face. 

I slept, I dreamed, I wakened: I am Man! 

The hut grows Palaces; the depths breed light; 

Still on! Forms pass; but Form yields kinglier 

Might! 

The singer, dying where his song began, 

In Me yet lives; and yet again shall he 

Unseal the lips of greater songs To Be; 

For mine the thousand tongues of Immortality.