de CLEYRE, Voltairine. "I Am"
A Poem
literature: poetryDE CLEYRE, Voltairine (1866-1912)Open Court 6 (1892) p.3118
I AmI 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 meThat old, old sleep has left its centurine trace;I am the plant that dreamed; and lo! still seeThat 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 kinglierMight!The singer, dying where his song began,In Me yet lives; and yet again shall heUnseal the lips of greater songs To Be;For mine the thousand tongues of Immortality.
— January 1892