From dreams like these I must be free! I know,
Dread phantom, you are nothing but myself.
You stand before me lately, mocking elf,
Too much, and follow me where’er I go.
What this portends I know not, death I fear.
But what seems just to do I shall perform.
A nation’s destiny is mine to steer,
A people’s hope is on me in the storm.
Behind these voices when they sing or laugh
I hear the droning of the telegraph:
Come! I would study now the last dispatches.

Second Phantom

No meaning it is clear your soul attaches
To thrones, or sirens, or the giant knees.
You have not fixed upon a policy.

First Phantom

I shall be guided—

Second Phantom

By necessity—

First Phantom

Well, yes, but by the will of God as well.

Second Phantom