The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-07-02
ROWLAND HALL.
Original Poem Read by Miss Colburn
at the Alumni Banquet.

With hearts tuned to harmonies almost
divine;
Where youth, grace and beauty hold
sway, it would seem
That the poet could here find his most
fitting theme.
If he only would glance this fair con-
His heart with poetical thoughts would
abound.
But, fair maids, with all due respect to
your graces,
If I'm reading correctly your thoughts
by your faces,
a poem of love, or of music or arts
Would not find a ready response in your
hearts,
For, sitting tonight by this table Ger
spread
With pastries and punches quite turns
girls head,
And all that she learned in her school or
her books,
Takes fight from her mind. except BAN
quetS and cooks.
So I'm thinking of taking tonight for my
theme,
One fiavored with ices, and Strawberries,
and cream;
In fact. about banquets I'm going to
write.
The subject that's nearest TO all hearts
tonight.
We're told by a poet both witty and sage,
That the worth of thing is e'er known
by it's age.
In that case a banquet must have price
For it's older than anything else upon
earth.
Long ages before this great world began,
Or it's fruits had ever been tasted by man,
On handicapped Olympus the godS set
around,
At a. feast where ambrosia and nectar
were found
The roaring of waters, the Wild Wlnd
low moan
Furnished music, while Jupiter sat on his
throne,
And welded his thunderbolts. blow after
blow,
And Juno sat next at TINS heavenly
board
With one eye on Venus and one on her
lord;
She could not hold the heart of great
Jove for one hour,
'Gainst the bright, wftching smiles and
the infinite grace
Which shone forth with love from venus
fair face.
Minerva Sat next, with calm, scornful
smiles,
And mind raised above all these FEMININE
Wiles;
For flirting and folly her whole soul
And She owned only wisdom her master
and lord.
Respondent with all that is beauty and
grace;
And jolly old Neptune, of course he was
witt, sea shells and sea weed all stuck
in his hair.
airy,
Fitted round with the nectar as light
Till Neptunes old trident just tripped
up her toe,
And the nectar was lost, and poor Hebe
also.
old set.
And we next at a wedding least ma them
all met.
But alas and alack for the feminine mind!
Again IN it vanity only we fnd.
For Minerva and Juno and Venus once
Fell out of accord just the same as be-
fore;
For which was the faSrest they couldn
Till paris came. in with his final decree.
And hence all the battles, the tears and
the blood
And the black, smoking ruins Where
Ilun stood.
descend
And to lands of the Orient together Wen
wend,
the host.
Served up to his guest his own son as
roast.
Then next in old Egypt a banquet we
Where fair Cleopatra. with Anthony
dined.
A boar, and deer, and a pig, and a
Did Mark Antony slay for the feast of his
While pearl of great price in a goblet
of wine
OF her priceless affection for him was
But Antony's joy was the queens charm
While Rome and her master both fell in
Oh, Antony! Why did you feast on her
eyes,
While you lost with that gaze, the whole
world as a prize?
The feast of Belshazzar my thoughts
next recall,
And the strange hand which wrote his
sad fate on the wall
And Damocles, too, at his gay. festive
board.
Ger whose head was suspended a glitter
ing sword.
There are banquets in Deutschland with
good lager beer,
And England where rare beef supplies
the good cheer,
And banquets in France with pate de fois
graS;
And American banquets, we know what
they are!
But of all the gay banquets I've ever
heard read,
Or heard sung, or ever heard said
The banquet at which we are sitting to-
night,
When compared with the others, is quite
cut of sight.
For how could Olympus, where deities
dwell,
Compare with the charms of the Knuts-
ford hotel?
And if goddesses come to this dull earth
at all,
They preside at this banquet ,of our
Rowland hall
Minerva is here, in the wisdom that's
stored
In the minds of the maidens surrounding
our board
While their hearts in harmonious chords
all aspire
To rival Apollo with his golden Tyre
And while there is present no fairy-like
Hebe
Our cups are borne round by a dark
Ganymede,
And the whole room is teeming with
beauty and grace,
Such as Venus bestowed on the gods
dwelling place.
IT'S true we've no boars upon which we
may dine,
And no priceless pearls to dissolve in our
wine;
But where IS the man who such treas
ures would prize,
When compared with the light in
true womans eyes?
We've never q, son to serve up at our
feast
But we have Mrs H, who has promised,
at least,
To give all our daughters in turn brown
roast,
Before they successfully rise NO their
toast.
So now for our dear Alma Mater tonight.
With hearts and with voices her daugh-