Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, CARNAGE: 6. DESTINY, by PERCY MACKAYE


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

CARNAGE: 6. DESTINY, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: We are what we imagine, and our deeds
Last Line: And dream from that despair — democracy.
Alternate Author Name(s): Mackaye, Percy Wallace
Subject(s): Democracy; Fate; World War I; Destiny; First World War


WE are what we imagine, and our deeds
Are born of dreaming. Europe acts to-day
Epics that little children in their play
Conjured, and statesmen murmured in their creeds;
In barrack, court and school were sown those seeds,
Like Dragon's teeth, which ripen to affray
Their sowers. Dreams of slaughter rise to slay,
And fate itself is stuff that fancy breeds.

Mock, then, no more at dreaming, lest our own
Create for us a like reality!
Let not imagination's soil be sown
With armèd men but justice, so that we
May for a world of tyranny stone
And dream from that despair — democracy.





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