Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1889-07-04
THE ALUMNI POEM.

When bards of old, by Inspiration seized,
And whispered promptings urged them to sing,
They'd HE unto the temple of the muse,
And offering prayers, beseech that she would
TO them subimest thoughts, both wise and true,
Well worthy to be handed down the line
OF future ages, and remain all through
Untarnished, spite contact with cankering time
To-day, | seek in vain the muses. aid;
Deaf to my call is every borrowed might;
My simple words Will be like flowers, that
bloom
To wither, at the coming on of II ght.
But like that flower, which turns her to the sun,
And follows with fond gaze, until at length
He sets in splendor in a crimson sea,
May |, though poorly, initiate this strength,
And have my theme my inspiration be.
And what more fitting theme could select
For this convening here today, which dates
And marks decades flight on wings of time
Since first " A. gave birth to graduates,
Than to compare the meagre past with now,
And by its light illumine future time,
No aimless flight of words, for shall strive
To weave some threads of reason thro' my
For is not oftentimes the future read
by just this very knowledge of the past,
May not some fact, almost oblvion's prey,
glimmering on the darksome future cast?
So taking for my theme this well known truth,
OF ieaiinS what's to come by what has gone,
| can fortell the evenings setting rays,
BY indications of the early morn.
Not many years ago, where now we stand,
There We're but rugged rocks, in shapes uncouth,
Where even verdure stunned to find place,
Or, fnting. died in undeveloped youth
But on the bleak and barren stretch of waste,
Was planted, by the providence of God,
A seed, which growing seemed to give new life
And wake to growth the corresponding sod.
All! what results so short a time has wrought,
Do not the fruits, the labor well repay?
Let skeptic doubters gaze upon it now,
the decades harvest garnered here today.
For from that tiny seed has grown a tree
Whose wide expanding branches, year by year,
Give greater sheltering place to those who wish
To lind abundant fruits of knowledge here.
For as old oceans mighty rising tide
Leaves moistehed trace upon the pebbly beach,
which each succeeding wave in turn outd0eS
And shows greater compass in its reach,
so mere, the years are waves upon that shore
Which skirts the little ocean we call time,
And here, we see them rising, each the more,
And each in leaving. mark higher line.
Turn back the annals of the past, and note
The great successes which are written there,
These were not Won by Incidence and hopes,
But whole-souled works, well mixed with, earn
est prayer.
Unlike the shifting footholds on the sands
Strong and unyiel,ling, powerful, secure,
Where faith, and works, and prayer have Joined
hands.
One cannot help but think and to compare
The class which graduates tomorrow morn,
With those who left ten sunny Junes ago,
And whom we claim V AS eldest born.
They were from point of numbers very few,
But boast not, ye more favored of today,
The mass will follow, while the few must lead,
And these were leaders, showing us the way.
What does this teach us, this the steady growth
From year to year, which marks an increased
power?
Who can translate the writing on the wall,
And read to US the lesson of the hour:
Unlike the dark portentious words of old,
Which told the king of all the evils done,
These speak in bright and cheering words to us