Page:The poems of Edmund Clarence Stedman, 1908.djvu/172

POEMS OF OCCASION There is a path by Science yet untrod

Where with closed eyes we walk to find out God!

Still, still, the unattained ideal lures,

The spell evades, the splendor yet endures;

False sang the poet,—there is no good in rest,

And Truth still leads us to a deeper quest.

III

But Alma Mater, with her mother-eyes

Seeing us graver grown if not more wise,—

She calls us back, dear comrades—ah, how dear,

And dearer than when each to each was near!

Time thickens blood! Enough to know that one

Our classmate was and is, and is her son;—

She looks unto the East, the South, the West,

Asking, "Now who have kept my maxims best?

Who have most nearly held within their grasp

The fluttering robe that each essayed to clasp?"

Can ye not answer, brothers, even as I,

That still in front the vision seems to fly,—

More light and fleet her shining footsteps burn,

And speed the most when most she seems to turn?

And some have fallen, fallen from our band

Just as we thought to see them lay the hand

Upon her scarf: we know their precious names,

Their hearts, their work, their sorrows, and their fames.

Few gifts the brief years brought them, yet how few

Fell to the living as the lots we drew!

But some, who most were baffled, later found

Capricious Fortune's arms a moment wound

About them; some, who sought her on one side,

Beheld her reach them by a compass wide.

What then is Life? or what Success may be

Who, who can tell? who for another see?

From those, perchance, that closest seem to hold

Her love, her strength, her laurels, or her gold, 142