Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
A Review.
Young men , whose generous hearts are beating high . We who are old , and are about to die , Salute you ; hail you ; take your hands in ours , And crown you with our welcome as
with flowers ! How beautiful is youth ! how brig ht it g leams With its illusions , aspirations , dreams ! Book of Beginnings , Story withont End , Each maid a heroine , and each man a
friend ! Aladdin ' s Lamp , and Fortunatus' Purse , That holds the treasures of the universe All possibilities are in its hands , No danger daunts it , and no foe withstands ;
In its sublime audacity of faith , ' Be thou removed ! ' it to the mountain saith , And with ambitious feet , secure and proud , Ascends the ladder leaning on the cloud As ancient Priam at the Scasan gate Sat on the walls of Troy in regal state
With the old men , too old and weak to fight , Chirping like grasshoppers in their delight To see the embattled hosts , with spear and shield ,
Of Trojans and Achaiaus in the field ; So from the snowy summits of our years We see you in the plain , as each appears , And question of you ; asking , ' Who is he That cowers above the others ? Which
may be Atreides , Menelaus , Odysseus , Ajax the great , or bold Idomenens 1 ' " And here comes in a seasonable word of warning : — " Let him not boast who puts his armor on
As he who puts it off , the battle done . Stud y yourselves ; and most of all note well Wherein kind Nature meant you to excel . Not every blossom ripens into fruit
; Minerva , the inventress of the flute , Flung it aside , when she her face surveyed Distorted in a fountain as she played ;
The unlucky MMSy ^ Jbwra it » auc * his fate Was one to make the bravest hesitate . Write on your doors the saying wise and old , 'Be bold ; be bold ! ' and
everywhere' Be bold ; Be not too bold ! ' Yet better the excess Than the defect ; better the more than less ; Better like Hector in the field to die , Than like a perfumed Paris turn and fly . "
Such a fact as is now depicted by the poet has necessarily a side of melancholy well represented in the moving words which follow : — " And now , my classmates ; ye remaining few
That number not the half of those we knew , Ye , against whose familiar names not yet The fatal asterisk of death is set , Ye I salute ! The horologe of Time Strikes the half-century with a solemn
chime , And summons us together once again , The joy of meeting not unmixed with pain . Where are the others ? Voices from the deep Caverns of darkness answer me : ' They
sleep ! I name no names ; instinctively I feel Each at some well-remembered grave will kneel , And from the inscription wipe the weeds and moss , For every heart best knoweth its own
loss . I see their scattered gravestones gleaming white Through the pale dusk of the impending night ; O ' er all alike the impartial sunset
throws Its golden lilies mingled with the rose ; We give to each a tender thought , and pass Out of the graveyards with their tangled grass , Unto these scenes frequented by our feet When we were young , and life was fresh and sweet .
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
A Review.
Young men , whose generous hearts are beating high . We who are old , and are about to die , Salute you ; hail you ; take your hands in ours , And crown you with our welcome as
with flowers ! How beautiful is youth ! how brig ht it g leams With its illusions , aspirations , dreams ! Book of Beginnings , Story withont End , Each maid a heroine , and each man a
friend ! Aladdin ' s Lamp , and Fortunatus' Purse , That holds the treasures of the universe All possibilities are in its hands , No danger daunts it , and no foe withstands ;
In its sublime audacity of faith , ' Be thou removed ! ' it to the mountain saith , And with ambitious feet , secure and proud , Ascends the ladder leaning on the cloud As ancient Priam at the Scasan gate Sat on the walls of Troy in regal state
With the old men , too old and weak to fight , Chirping like grasshoppers in their delight To see the embattled hosts , with spear and shield ,
Of Trojans and Achaiaus in the field ; So from the snowy summits of our years We see you in the plain , as each appears , And question of you ; asking , ' Who is he That cowers above the others ? Which
may be Atreides , Menelaus , Odysseus , Ajax the great , or bold Idomenens 1 ' " And here comes in a seasonable word of warning : — " Let him not boast who puts his armor on
As he who puts it off , the battle done . Stud y yourselves ; and most of all note well Wherein kind Nature meant you to excel . Not every blossom ripens into fruit
; Minerva , the inventress of the flute , Flung it aside , when she her face surveyed Distorted in a fountain as she played ;
The unlucky MMSy ^ Jbwra it » auc * his fate Was one to make the bravest hesitate . Write on your doors the saying wise and old , 'Be bold ; be bold ! ' and
everywhere' Be bold ; Be not too bold ! ' Yet better the excess Than the defect ; better the more than less ; Better like Hector in the field to die , Than like a perfumed Paris turn and fly . "
Such a fact as is now depicted by the poet has necessarily a side of melancholy well represented in the moving words which follow : — " And now , my classmates ; ye remaining few
That number not the half of those we knew , Ye , against whose familiar names not yet The fatal asterisk of death is set , Ye I salute ! The horologe of Time Strikes the half-century with a solemn
chime , And summons us together once again , The joy of meeting not unmixed with pain . Where are the others ? Voices from the deep Caverns of darkness answer me : ' They
sleep ! I name no names ; instinctively I feel Each at some well-remembered grave will kneel , And from the inscription wipe the weeds and moss , For every heart best knoweth its own
loss . I see their scattered gravestones gleaming white Through the pale dusk of the impending night ; O ' er all alike the impartial sunset
throws Its golden lilies mingled with the rose ; We give to each a tender thought , and pass Out of the graveyards with their tangled grass , Unto these scenes frequented by our feet When we were young , and life was fresh and sweet .