Crimson Reprints 1937 Poem And Ode from Album Out Today

New England's green stirs from its Winter sleep And spreads its lawns and ivies everywhere;

The elms, the oaks, and maples rise and keep Their murmuring boughs above the land they share.

Once more the winds with Summer's warmth are crowned, And songs come from the shadows in the trees;

Again the shells of time send forth their sound As youth goes by on wings of wayward breeze.

How dear that pale September night when we Had paused beneath McKean Gate to gaze

Into the Yard's low-branching canopy: What was that Lydian chord whose note still plays?

Day after day our Freshman year seemed long, Our April found the Winter in a trance,

And yet that June our Spring had seemed to throng Until the year was just a backward glance.

And O how short four College years have been: There cloistered years too soon have gone their way

And left their music as the mind's mute din To swell upon occasions as today:

Bear witness, Harvard, your immortal name

Has seen three centuries inscribe your fame

Within the chart of time whose sweep of years

Has left untouched the fringe of your frontiers;

Like tides of mortal seas, the flowing stream

Though time's unceasing ebb and flow still seem

That pulses in your halls had depths profound,

Unfathomed as it moved through worldly ground,

And yet, beneath your Chapel's shadow, you

Sought inmost thoughts and found them ever true.

The seas have ceased their thrumming, and a voice Comes up in rhythmic pulse with tales of cheer;

Matured with warmth of thought, its tones rejoice The depth of friendships lasting and sincere.

Yet who upon this earth can apprehend Immortal thoughts when words are grains of sand

The mortal hour glass drops through its bend, Into a shallow grave at His command?

And who dares speak the love we have for you? Our voiceless minds can only feel the tie

Of Veritas that those Ten Thousand knew; We graduate, but that is not good-bye;

We part, yes, with a smile and not a sorrow For we shall meet again beyond tomorrow.

Beyond tomorrow? There the endless day

Inaugurates your reign. O Harvard, may

Eternal morning's sun shine on your name

And foster men as worthy of your fame.

(This page ' printed by permission of the senior Album Committee)