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. + 