The Portage County Democrat. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1863-09-23
Fhe xviIliams COLLEGE .class OF 1s1a

ne NAAAAaH1S COAAese z S1sASs Oh 1915
At the commencement Of Williams College. the
following poem by MIR. Bryant read by Mr.. G. F.
Sedgwics, of the class of 1913:
FIFTY YEARS.
Fer The Fftieh Anniversary of The Glass of wilkins
college which was graduated In 1919.
BY WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT.
Long stree, gallant youthful company
Went from these learned shades. The hand of time
hath scored. upon the perished WORKS Of man,
TIE yea s of ha'fa century since that day.
Firth to The world they went in hope, b { come
Fell a. the threshold, some in mid career
Sank down, and some who br ng thei- frosty brows.
\ Ii ing register of change, are here.
And irs m q spot where they conned the words
Written by ssges of the elder time,
u Ok back on fifty years Large space are they
OF MANS br eff lie, those fifty years ey join
Its ruddy morning to the paier light
OF its declining hours. In fifty years - asAs;
AS many generations of earths flowers
Have sweeteued The soft air OF spring, and died.
5 m: ny barvests have, in turn made green
The hills, aud ripened iato cold and fallen
heflre the sic lie edge. The saP.inz tree ~
Wifch then planted stands a shaggy trunk,
Moss gown, the center OF mighty shaie.
In any years the pasture grounos have oft
Renewed their herds and hocks, and from the stalls
New races Of The generous steed have neighed
Il
Ancestral crowns have fallen from kingiy brows
| For clownish heels to crush; dyua ties re
Have climbed to empire, and new commonwealth
Have formed and fallen again TO wreck, like clouds
Which the wind tears and scatters. Mighty, names
| Have blazed upon the worI and passed away, !.
Their lustre lessening, like the fidei train
OF receding comet. Fifty years
/ Have given the mariner to outstfip the wind
With engines ehurning the black deep foam, -
And tanned the nimble 1ighlnings, seHdifg them
| oG messages for man, aud forced the sua
| To linn for maa upon the snowy shs set
Whate'er he shines upon, and taught the ant @
/ To vex the pale dull clay beneath feet
With ehemic tortures, till the sullen
tiows in bright torrents from the furnace-mouth,
A lining metal TO be clay more 5-f5.5
| Oh. growth in goodness like growth
! In art. tine thousand years of innocence
And peace foretold hyancient prophecy,
i We're here aready, aud the reign oil Sin :
| Were ended o'er the ga rth on which we dwell
! Ii fifty years the little commonwealth,
Oar league of stars, that, in its early day,
skirted the long Atlantic st, has grown
To vast empire alled with populous towns
4 Beside its midland rivers and beyond
The snowy peaks that bound its midland plains
To where its rvulets over sInds of gold,
Seek the Paeihe--tin at length we stood
Great mid the greatest of The powers of earth,
And they who stood upon the eari's ancient thrones
Beheld It's growth In wonder and IN awe. 7Sffl
6fly years, a deaeGer foe than they 5-I
The Wrong that SCOTS at husnan brotherhood
And hol ds the l4sa Ter niilous-has become
4 S mighty aud so insolent in its might.
= That it springs to Ok on Liberty
The death grippe, and o'erturn the glorious realm
Her children founded here. Fierce is the strife,
As when of old the SHINING angels stroye
) To whelu beneath the uprooted hills of heaven
: Tne OF the Lori. Yet then,
God and the Right shall give the victory.
! For US, who ifty years ago forth
: Upan the worll's gre t theatre, may
Yet see the day of tri i,nph, which the hours
On steady wing wait 6iiher fro the depths
OF serener future; may yet,
= Beneath the reign of pea e, behold
The shaken pillars of our conmnnw 'aith
: Stand eadi listed in III ir ancent pnise, ~ =
AMI the great crime Of which slrifs was bora
!. Perish win its accursed progeny.
The Springfield Republican says
u .'zTbe Williams College did graceff
i and peasant thing by voti prnt in the rien il
y, catalogue, with the class of 1913, with whom
stfdied but did not graduate, the name of Millia
II Cullen Bryant, thus virtually giving lin his degrt
It half century after date