Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1899-06-30

OF Helcon, belated,
Or quaff sweet nectar to the Gods,
To Trojan nymphs mismated;
No Milton in our poets train,
No Keats tossing so sweetly,
No Bobbie Burns, on Highland plain,
To WOO the muse discreetly.
Fen poesy, dear friends, is dead,
And ne'er did muse flee faster
Than when pursues, with hating tread,
A simple poetaster.
Thus rhymes and poets disappear,
While Scier ce mounts the higher,
And philosophic wells each year
Both deeper grow and dryer
But then, dear friends, I'm glad to Join
Your sweet and glad communion,
And from my heart and brain would coin
Words meet for this reunion.
Salvete then; thrice welcome all;
Let's stay the swift-winged hours,
And decorate yon college hall
With choicest gifts and flowers,
And walk with memory as a friend
All cares shut from our vision,
While smiles and tears together blend
In thoughts of days elysian,
when we, as students, dreamed our dreams,
DEGREES of fate reversing,
And call to mind time honored themes,
Old college days rehearsing.
But ne'er for ret, when e'er we meet,
Fond memories to recall,
With laurel and with songs to greet
The Mother of us all.
Our queenly Alma Matters form appears,
Adorned with fruits,of nine and ninety years.
In teaching men to prove both brave and
broad,
Respect themselves and reverence Truth and
God.
Strong men for her made sacrifice and toll;
A broad foundation laid, and broke the soil,
Reared here on Freedoms rock, meath Free.
dom's sky
A living temple that shall never die,
Whose glorious banner reads, "For God and
Truth,
An inspiration to our country's youth.
All honor to them-heroes brave and strong
Who need no monument in bronze or song.
Yon cloud-capped mountain tops their watch
did keep,
And stars by night shone from cerulean deep;
Through winters bleak, through summers
lengthening days,
Our fathers toiling gave to God the praise.
No skv was cloudless, but in each dark storm
Hopes rainbow CLEANED to show the coming
morn.
o deathless days, when every field and sod
Its increase gave to Learning and to God;
When brave hearts worshlped at the Mothers
shrine,
While hope etfulgent cleaned and Truth
looked down sublime.
But years have passed till in these later days,
From all the land sound notes of love and
praise
To our loved college, which by record gained,
By plans and hopes as yet but half attained,
Calls on her friends and sons the whole world
DER
To trim her lamps and love her more and
more.
What have these years wrought for Colum.
bias lands?
They've bridged our untrod zones with iron
bands.
Laid cables deep on Oceans shifting sands,
Brought into life ten thousand useful arts,
Sunk mines, bored giant mountains, built
strong marts,
For Commerce in earth's known and un.
known parts;
Our spreading sails we see with Joyous eyes
Catch the first breeze of each new enterprise
Still Fortune smiles and Gain no hope denies,
When Science sends her fleets to ind the
poles,
When Charity builds founding homes and
schools,
When church spires on the frontier daily
rise,
And men of very life make sacrifice
To bear the martyr cross 10 unknown lands,
To help the suffering and to loose their
bands
When Uncle sam in his victorious sway
Some far OFF island adds for each new day,
Shall Alma Mater with her well-earned fame
Neglected, languish or remain the same?
Nay, God forbid! ten thousand tongues de
mand
Her watchword too shall ever be E1pand.
Fratres alumni, students freshly turned
From college halls where Sciences laws are
learned,
Whose lips are rosy tinged with Plato's
Greek,
Whose glossy locks match cen Apollo's
sleek.
Think not in truth my rustic muse ordains
To further vex your minds with plaintive
strains
OF glories past and deeds of other days,
Nor for the future sound the note of praise.
New patrons, out OF generous hearts and
great,
Fresh halls to Learning here shall dedicate,
For wider reign of Gods eternal Truth,
Sources of help and hope to struggling youth
Beneath these elms, from country town and
street,
Unnumbered youth this college home shall
greet,
To delve in Science, Homers lines to scan,
And bridge with fact the fancy's shifting
span;
And some will come, with nought to hell
| them save
The parting blessing and examples brave,
Who here shall learn LIES choicest gifts are
| stored
For him who fights and never yields hi:
| sword.
The world doth leave with mighty stride
The fieeting years behind u.s.
Science her gates filings open wide,
Banished almost is space and tide,
But our college home shall e'er abide,
And of the past remind us.
A song of nine and ninety years,
My fellow lads and lasses
Dispatch all gloom, dispel all tears,
Renew your hopes, dismiss your fears,
Fling out youths flag with hearty cheers,
And rearrange your classes.