Clarence Michael James Stanislaus Dennis - An Old Man Muses lyrics

Can it be I - this Hindenburg, deferring To demagogues, catch phrases, lucky charms And all this mummery about me stirring? Can it be I, lord of high feats of arms, Smiling complancence on a rabble's blunders, Counting a mountebank amongst my peers I, who commanded with the voice of thunders? Ah, what a role betrays me with the years! Can it be I - condoning, cavallering This sorry paint-and-tinsel paladin. This braggart upstart, raging, racketeering Like some cheap western gangster 'muscling in,' Apeing the arts in which I loomed a master: Acting with arms as children play with toys: Mouthing fierce phrases, pregannt with disaster, To lure brief loyalty from brain-sick boys? Can it be I who saw the vision splendid Shaping before these ageing eyes of mine, When half a world, before my day had eneded, Hurtled its might against my stubborn Line? The Line of Hindenburg! the natons raging Before an avatar who reached the sky! ... And now? - A hapless figurehead, fast ageing, The mighty Hindenburg! Can this be I? Strange trick of Fate ... And yet, sometimes I wonder, While factions rage and puny tyrants bray, If victory might yet be snatched for blunder Till gloriously dawned against The Day! If - To what end? Youth seeks in other fashion It's destiny. 'Tis world-worn age that drools Of glories gone ... Enough to veil compa**ion With weary tolerance. Poor dupes! Poor fools!