...De la libre pensée... 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.