Page:The poems of Edmund Clarence Stedman, 1908.djvu/175

YALE ODE FOR COMMENCEMENT DAY That the late singer of this strain might prove

Himself less keen for honors, more for love,

And in the music of your answer find

The charms that life to further action bind.

The Past is past; survey its course no more;

Henceforth our glasses sweep the further shore.

Five lustra, briefer than those gone, remain,

And then—a white-haired few shall meet again,

Lifting their heads that long have learned to droop,

And hear some sweeter minstrel of our group.

But stay! which one of us, alone, shall dine

At the Last Shadowy Banquet of the line?

Who knows? who does not in his heart reply,

"It matters not, so that it be not I."

YALE ODE FOR COMMENCEMENT DAY

I ! through the archways old

High voices manifold

Sing praise to our fair Mother, praise to Yale!

The Muses' rustling garments trail;

White arms, with myrtle and with laurel wound,

Bring crowns to her, the Crowned!

Youngest and blithest, and awaited long,

The heavenly maid, sweet Music's child divine,

With golden lyre and joy of choric song

Leads all the Sisters Nine.

II

In the gray of a people's morn,

In the faith of the years to be,

The sacred Mother was born

On the shore of the fruitful sea; 145