we are the music makers and we are the dreamers of dreams

in 1971 the Quaker oats company paid Roald Dahl to create a film adaptation of his book "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory". unhappy with Dahl's literal film translation of the book, Quaker quietly commissioned David Seltzer to edit Dahl's script. the result was a film offering a marked departure from Dahl's book, chiefly in its portrayal of Willy Wonka. in the book, Wonka is made out to be dark and aloof whereas, in the film, Wonka's dialogue is seasoned with lyrical literary references by the likes of o-Wilde and Willy Shakes, to name a few.

below you'll find Arthur O'Shaugnessey's lovely poem titled "Ode" made famous by Seltzer's 1971 screenplay for "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory".

watch the willy wonka scene here.

Ode by Arthur O'Shaugnessey

We are the music-makers,
And we are the dreamers of dreams,
Wandering by lone sea-breakers,
And sitting by desolate streams;
World-losers and world-forsakers,	5
On whom the pale moon gleams:
Yet we are the movers and shakers
Of the world for ever, it seems.
With wonderful deathless ditties
We build up the world's great cities,	10
And out of a fabulous story
We fashion an empire's glory:
One man with a dream, at pleasure,
Shall go forth and conquer a crown;
And three with a new song's measure	15
Can trample an empire down.
We, in the ages lying
In the buried past of the earth,
Built Nineveh with our sighing,
And Babel itself with our mirth;	20
And o'erthrew them with prophesying
To the old of the new world's worth;
For each age is a dream that is dying,
Or one that is coming to birth.

Posted by Madame Lamb on Monday, January 10, 2011 at 10:41 PM 3 comments

fireflies in the garden

here is a reassuring poem that robert frost wrote in 1928 called "fireflies in the garden". it speaks to the dreamers of dreams that are looking to sustain a certain part.

Fireflies in the Garden by Robert Frost

Here come real stars to fill the upper skies,
And here on earth come emulating flies,
That though they never equal stars in size,
(And they were never really stars at heart)
Achieve at times a very star-like start.
Only, of course, they can't sustain the part.

Posted by Madame Lamb on Tuesday, June 2, 2009 at 3:23 PM 0 comments