Morituri Salutamus: Poem For The Fiftieth Anniversary Of The Class Of 1825 In Bowdoin College Poem Rhyme Scheme

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Morituri Salutamus: Poem For The Fiftieth Anniversary Of The Class Of 1825 In Bowdoin College Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

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Tempora labuntur tacitisque senescimus annis	A
Et fugiunt freno non remorante dies	B
Ovid Fastorum Lib vi	C
	-
O C sar we who are about to die	C
Salute you was the gladiators' cry	C
In the arena standing face to face	D
With death and with the Roman populace	E
	-
O ye familiar scenes ye groves of pine	F
That once were mine and are no longer mine	F
Thou river widening through the meadows green	G
To the vast sea so near and yet unseen	G
Ye halls in whose seclusion and repose	H
	-
Phantoms of fame like exhalations rose	H
And vanished we who are about to die	C
Salute you earth and air and sea and sky	C
And the Imperial Sun that scatters down	I
His sovereign splendors upon grove and town	I
	-
Ye do not answer us ye do not hear	J
We are forgotten and in your austere	K
And calm indifference ye little care	L
Whether we come or go or whence or where	L
What passing generations fill these halls	M
What passing voices echo from these walls	M
Ye heed not we are only as the blast	N
A moment heard and then forever past	N
	-
Not so the teachers who in earlier days	O
Led our bewildered feet through learning's maze	O
They answer us alas what have I said	P
What greetings come there from the voiceless dead	P
What salutation welcome or reply	C
What pressure from the hands that lifeless lie	C
They are no longer here they all are gone	Q
Into the land of shadows all save one	R
Honor and reverence and the good repute	S
That follows faithful service as its fruit	S
Be unto him whom living we salute	S
	-
The great Italian poet when he made	T
His dreadful journey to the realms of shade	T
Met there the old instructor of his youth	U
And cried in tones of pity and of ruth	U
Oh never from the memory of my heart	V
	-
Your dear paternal image shall depart	V
Who while on earth ere yet by death surprised	W
Taught me how mortals are immortalized	W
How grateful am I for that patient care	L
All my life long my language shall declare	L
	-
To day we make the poet's words our own	X
And utter them in plaintive undertone	X
Nor to the living only be they said	P
But to the other living called the dead	P
Whose dear paternal images appear	K
Not wrapped in gloom but robed in sunshine here	J
Whose simple lives complete and without flaw	Y
Were part and parcel of great Nature's law	Y
Who said not to their Lord as if afraid	T
Here is thy talent in a napkin laid	T
But labored in their sphere as men who live	Z
In the delight that work alone can give	A2
Peace be to them eternal peace and rest	B2
And the fulfilment of the great behest	B2
Ye have been faithful over a few things	C2
Over ten cities shall ye reign as kings	C2
	-
And ye who fill the places we once filled	D2
And follow in the furrows that we tilled	D2
Young men whose generous hearts are beating high	C
We who are old and are about to die	C
Salute you hail you take your hands in ours	E2
And crown you with our welcome as with flowers	E2
	-
How beautiful is youth how bright it gleams	F2
With its illusions aspirations dreams	F2
Book of Beginnings Story without End	D2
Each maid a heroine and each man a friend	D2
Aladdin's Lamp and Fortunatus' Purse	G2
That holds the treasures of the universe	G2
All possibilities are in its hands	H2
No danger daunts it and no foe withstands	H2
In its sublime audacity of faith	I2
Be thou removed it to the mountain saith	I2
And with ambitious feet secure and proud	D2
Ascends the ladder leaning on the cloud	D2
	-
As ancient Priam at the Sc an gate	D2
Sat on the walls of Troy in regal state	D2
With the old men too old and weak to fight	D2
Chirping like grasshoppers in their delight	D2
To see the embattled hosts with spear and shield	D2
Of Trojans and Achaians in the field	D2
So from the snowy summits of our years	J2
We see you in the plain as each appears	J2
And question of you asking Who is he	K2
That towers above the others Which may be	K2
Atreides Menelaus Odysseus	E
Ajax the great or bold Idomeneus	E
	-
Let him not boast who puts his armor on	L2
As he who puts it off the battle done	R
Study yourselves and most of all note well	M2
Wherein kind Nature meant you to excel	M2
Not every blossom ripens into fruit	D2
Minerva the inventress of the flute	D2
Flung it aside when she her face surveyed	D2
Distorted in a fountain as she played	D2
The unlucky Marsyas found it and his fate	D2
Was one to make the bravest hesitate	D2
	-
Write on your doors the saying wise and old	D2
Be bold be bold and everywhere Be bold	D2
Be not too bold Yet better the excess	E
Than the defect better the more than less	E
Better like Hector in the field to die	C
Than like a perfumed Paris turn and fly	C
	-
And now my classmates ye remaining few	N2
That number not the half of those we knew	N2
Ye against whose familiar names not yet	D2
The fatal asterisk of death is set	D2
Ye I salute The horologe of Time	O2
Strikes the half century with a solemn chime	O2
And summons us together once again	P2
The joy of meeting not unmixed with pain	Q2
	-
Where are the others Voices from the deep	R2
Caverns of darkness answer me They sleep	R2
I name no names instinctively I feel	S2
Each at some well remembered grave will kneel	S2
And from the inscription wipe the weeds and moss	E
For every heart best knoweth its own loss	E
I see their scattered gravestones gleaming white	D2
Through the pale dusk of the impending night	D2
O'er all alike the impartial sunset throws	E
Its golden lilies mingled with the rose	E
We give to each a tender thought and pass	E
Out of the graveyards with their tangled grass	E
Unto these scenes frequented by our feet	D2
When we were young and life was fresh and sweet	D2
	-
What shall I say to you What can I say	E
Better than silence is When I survey	E
This throng of faces turned to meet my own	X
Friendly and fair and yet to me unknown	X
Transformed the very landscape seems to be	K2
It is the same yet not the same to me	K2
So many memories crowd upon my brain	Q2
So many ghosts are in the wooded plain	Q2
I fain would steal away with noiseless tread	D2
As from a house where some one lieth dead	D2
I cannot go I pause I hesitate	D2
My feet reluctant linger at the gate	D2
As one who struggles in a troubled dream	T2
To speak and cannot to myself I seem	T2
	-
Vanish the dream Vanish the idle fears	E
Vanish the rolling mists of fifty years	E
Whatever time or space may intervene	G
I will not be a stranger in this scene	G
Here every doubt all indecision ends	E
Hail my companions comrades classmates friends	E
	-
Ah me the fifty years since last we met	D2
Seem to me fifty folios bound and set	D2
By Time the great transcriber on his shelves	E
Wherein are written the histories of ourselves	E
What tragedies what comedies are there	L
What joy and grief what rapture and despair	L
What chronicles of triumph and defeat	D2
Of struggle and temptation and retreat	D2
What records of regrets and doubts and fears	E
What pages blotted blistered by our tears	E
What lovely landscapes on the margin shine	F
What sweet angelic faces what divine	F
And holy images of love and trust	D2
Undimmed by age unsoiled by damp or dust	D2
Whose hand shall dare to open and explore	U2
These volumes closed and clasped forevermore	U2
Not mine With reverential feet I pass	E
I hear a voice that cries Alas alas	E
Whatever hath been written shall remain	Q2
Nor be erased nor written o'er again	P2
The unwritten only still belongs to thee	K2
Take heed and ponder well what that shall be	K2
	-
As children frightened by a thunder cloud	D2
Are reassured if some one reads aloud	D2
A tale of wonder with enchantment fraught	D2
Or wild adventure that diverts their thought	D2
Let me endeavor with a tale to chase	E
The gathering shadows of the time and place	E
And banish what we all too deeply feel	S2
Wholly to say or wholly to conceal	S2
	-
In medi val Rome I know not where	U2
There stood an image with its arm in air	U2
And on its lifted finger shining clear	U2
A golden ring with the device Strike here	U2
Greatly the people wondered though none guessed	D2
The meaning that these words but half expressed	D2
Until a learned clerk who at noonday	D2
With downcast eyes was passing on his way	E
Paused and observed the spot and marked it well	M2
Whereon the shadow of the finger fell	M2
And coming back at midnight delved and found	D2
A secret stairway leading underground	D2
Down this he passed into a spacious hall	V2
Lit by a flaming jewel on the wall	V2
And opposite in threatening attitude	D2
With bow and shaft a brazen statue stood	D2
Upon its forehead like a coronet	D2
Were these mysterious words of menace set	D2
That which I am I am my fatal aim	W2
None can escape not even yon luminous flame	W2
	-
Midway the hall was a fair table placed	D2
With cloth of gold and golden cups enchased	D2
With rubies and the plates and knives were gold	D2
And gold the bread and viands manifold	D2
Around it silent motionless and sad	D2
Were seated gallant knights in armor clad	D2
And ladies beautiful with plume and zone	X
But they were stone their hearts within were stone	X
And the vast hall was filled in every part	D2
With silent crowds stony in face and heart	D2
	-
Long at the scene bewildered and amazed	D2
The trembling clerk in speechless wonder gazed	D2
Then from the table by his greed made bold	D2
He seized a goblet and a knife of gold	D2
And suddenly from their seats the guests upsprang	C
The vaulted ceiling with loud clamors rang	C
The archer sped his arrow at their call	V2
Shattering the lambent jewel on the wall	V2
And all was dark around and overhead	D2
Stark on the floor the luckless clerk lay dead	D2
	-
The writer of this legend then records	E
Its ghostly application in these words	E
The image is the Adversary old	D2
Whose beckoning finger points to realms of gold	D2
Our lusts and passions are the downward stair	U2
That leads the soul from a diviner air	U2
The archer Death the flaming jewel Life	X2
Terrestrial goods the goblet and the knife	X2
The knights and ladies all whose flesh and bone	X
By avarice have been hardened into stone	X
The clerk the scholar whom the love of pelf	X2
Tempts from his books and from his nobler self	X2
	-
The scholar and the world The endless strife	X2
The discord in the harmonies of life	X2
The love of learning the sequestered nooks	E
And all the sweet serenity of books	E
The market place the eager love of gain	Q2
Whose aim is vanity and whose end is pain	Q2
	-
But why you ask me should this tale be told	D2
To men grown old or who are growing old	D2
It is too late Ah nothing is too late	D2
Till the tired heart shall cease to palpitate	D2
Cato learned Greek at eighty Sophocles	E
Wrote his grand Oedipus and Simonides	E
Bore off the prize of verse from his compeers	E
When each had numbered more than fourscore years	E
And Theophrastus at fourscore and ten	P2
Had but begun his Characters of Men	P2
Chaucer at Woodstock with the nightingales	E
At sixty wrote the Canterbury Tales	E
Goethe at Weimar toiling to the last	D2
Completed Faust when eighty years were past	D2
These are indeed exceptions but they show	Y2
How far the gulf stream of our youth may flow	Y2
Into the arctic regions of our lives	E
Where little else than life itself survives	E
	-
As the barometer foretells the storm	Z2
While still the skies are clear the weather warm	Z2
So something in us as old age draws near	U2
Betrays the pressure of the atmosphere	U2
The nimble mercury ere we are aware	U2
Descends the elastic ladder of the air	U2
The telltale blood in artery and vein	Q2
Sinks from its higher levels in the brain	Q2
Whatever poet orator or sage	A3
May say of it old age is still old age	A3
It is the waning not the crescent moon	B3
The dusk of evening not the blaze of noon	B3
It is not strength but weakness not desire	U2
But its surcease not the fierce heat of fire	U2
The burning and consuming element	D2
But that of ashes and of embers spent	D2
In which some living sparks we still discern	C3
Enough to warm but not enough to burn	C3
	-
What then Shall we sit idly down and say	E
The night hath come it is no longer day	E
The night hath not yet come we are not quite	D2
Cut off from labor by the failing light	D2
Something remains for us to do or dare	U2
Even the oldest tree some fruit may bear	U2
Not Oedipus Coloneus or Greek Ode	D2
Or tales of pilgrims that one morning rode	D2
Out of the gateway of the Tabard Inn	D3
But other something would we but begin	D3
For age is opportunity no less	E
Than youth itself though in another dress	E
And as the evening twilight fades away	E
The sky is filled with stars invisible by day	E