Vestigia Quinque Retrorsum Poem Rhyme Scheme

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AN ACADEMIC POEM	A
	-
	-
	-
Read at the Commencement Dinner of the Alumni of Harvard	B
University June	C
	-
WHILE fond sad memories all around us throng	D
Silence were sweeter than the sweetest song	D
Yet when the leaves are green and heaven is blue	E
The choral tribute of the grove is due	E
And when the lengthening nights have chilled the skies	F
We fain would hear the song bird ere be flies	F
And greet with kindly welcome even as now	G
The lonely minstrel on his leafless bough	G
	-
This is our golden year its golden day	H
Its bridal memories soon must pass away	H
Soon shall its dying music cease to ring	I
And every year must loose some silver string	I
Till the last trembling chords no longer thrill	J
Hands all at rest and hearts forever still	J
	-
A few gray heads have joined the forming line	K
We hear our summons 'Class of 'Twenty Nine '	-
Close on the foremost and alas how few	E
Are these 'The Boys' our dear old Mother knew	E
Sixty brave swimmers Twenty something more	L
Have passed the stream and reached this frosty shore	L
	-
How near the banks these fifty years divide	M
When memory crosses with a single stride	M
'T is the first year of stern 'Old Hickory' 's rule	N
When our good Mother lets us out of school	N
Half glad half sorrowing it must be confessed	O
To leave her quiet lap her bounteous breast	O
Armed with our dainty ribbon tied degrees	P
Pleased and yet pensive exiles and A B 's	Q
	-
Look back O comrades with your faded eyes	F
And see the phantoms as I bid them rise	F
Whose smile is that Its pattern Nature gave	R
A sunbeam dancing in a dimpled wave	R
KIRKLAND alone such grace from Heaven could win	S
His features radiant as the soul within	S
That smile would let him through Saint Peter's gate	T
While sad eyed martyrs had to stand and wait	T
Here flits mercurial Farrar standing there	U
See mild benignant cautious learned Ware	U
And sturdy patient faithful honest Hedge	V
Whose grinding logic gave our wits their edge	V
Ticknor with honeyed voice and courtly grace	W
And Willard larynxed like a double bass	X
And Channing with his bland superior look	Y
Cool as a moonbeam on a frozen brook	Y
	-
While the pale student shivering in his shoes	Z
Sees from his theme the turgid rhetoric ooze	Z
And the born soldier fate decreed to wreak	A2
His martial manhood on a class in Greek	A2
Popkin How that explosive name recalls	B2
The grand old Busby of our ancient halls	B2
Such faces looked from Skippon's grim platoons	C2
Such figures rode with Ireton's stout dragoons	C2
He gave his strength to learning's gentle charms	C2
But every accent sounded 'Shoulder arms '	-
	-
Names empty names Save only here and there	U
Some white haired listener dozing in his chair	U
Starts at the sound he often used to hear	D2
And upward slants his Sunday sermon ear	D2
And we our blooming manhood we regain	E2
Smiling we join the long Commencement train	E2
One point first battled in discussion hot	F2
Shall we wear gowns and settled We will not	F2
How strange the scene that noisy boy debate	T
Where embryo speakers learn to rule the State	T
This broad browed youth sedate and sober eyed	M
Shall wear the ermined robe at Taney's side	M
And he the stripling smooth of face and slight	G2
Whose slender form scarce intercepts the light	G2
Shall rule the Bench where Parsons gave the law	H2
And sphinx like sat uncouth majestic Shaw	H2
Ah many a star has shed its fatal ray	H
On names we loved our brothers where are they	H
	-
Nor these alone our hearts in silence claim	I2
Names not less dear unsyllabled by fame	I2
	-
How brief the space and yet it sweeps us back	J2
Far far along our new born history's track	J2
Five strides like this the sachem rules the land	K2
The Indian wigwams cluster where we stand	K2
	-
The second Lo a scene of deadly strife	L2
A nation struggling into infant life	L2
Not yet the fatal game at Yorktown won	M2
Where failing Empire fired its sunset gun	M2
LANGDON sits restless in the ancient chair	U
Harvard's grave Head these echoes heard his prayer	U
When from yon mansion dear to memory still	J
The banded yeomen marched for Bunker's Hill	J
Count on the grave triennial's thick starred roll	N2
What names were numbered on the lengthening scroll	N2
Not unfamiliar in our ears they ring	I
Winthrop Hale Eliot Everett Dexter Tyng	I
	-
Another stride Once more at 'twenty nine	K
GOD SAVE KING GEORGE the Second of his line	K
And is Sir Isaac living Nay not so	C2
He followed Flainsteed two short years ago	C2
And what about the little hump backed man	O2
Who pleased the bygone days of good Queen Anne	O2
What Pope another book he's just put out	P2
'The Dunciad ' witty but profane no doubt	P2
	-
Where's Cotton Mather he was always here	D2
And so he would be but he died last year	Q2
Who is this preacher our Northampton claims	C2
Whose rhetoric blazes with sulphureous flames	C2
And torches stolen from Tartarean mines	C2
Edwards the salamander of divines	C2
A deep strong nature pure and undefiled	P2
Faith firm as his who stabbed his sleeping child	P2
Alas for him who blindly strays apart	P2
And seeking God has lost his human heart	P2
Fall where they might no flying cinders caught	P2
These sober halls where WADSWORTH ruled and	P2
taught	P2
	-
One footstep more the fourth receding stride	P2
Leaves the round century on the nearer side	P2
GOD SAVE KING CHARLES God knows that pleasant knave	R
His grace will find it hard enough to save	R
Ten years and more and now the Plague the Fire	R2
Talk of all tongues at last begin to tire	R2
One fear prevails all other frights forgot	P2
White lips are whispering hark The Popish Plot	P2
Happy New England from such troubles free	S2
In health and peace beyond the stormy sea	S2
No Romish daggers threat her children's throats	C2
No gibbering nightmare mutters 'Titus Oates '	-
Philip is slain the Quaker graves are green	T2
Not yet the witch has entered on the scene	T2
Happy our Harvard pleased her graduates four	L
URIAN OAKES the name their parchments bore	L
	-
Two centuries past our hurried feet arrive	U2
At the last footprint of the scanty five	U2
Take the fifth stride our wandering eyes explore	L
A tangled forest on a trackless shore	L
Here where we stand the savage sorcerer howls	C2
The wild cat snarls the stealthy gray wolf prowls	C2
The slouching bear perchance the trampling moose	C2
Starts the brown squaw and scares her red pappoose	C2
At every step the lurking foe is near	Q2
His Demons reign God has no temple here	D2
	-
Lift up your eyes behold these pictured walls	C2
Look where the flood of western glory falls	C2
Through the great sunflower disk of blazing panes	C2
In ruby saffron azure emerald stains	C2
With reverent step the marble pavement tread	P2
Where our proud Mother's martyr roll is read	P2
See the great halls that cluster gathering round	P2
This lofty shrine with holiest memories crowned	P2
See the fair Matron in her summer bower	R2
Fresh as a rose in bright perennial flower	R2
Read on her standard always in the van	O2
'TRUTH ' the one word that makes a slave a man	O2
Think whose the hands that fed her altar fires	C2
Then count the debt we owe our scholar sires	C2
	-
Brothers farewell the fast declining ray	H
Fades to the twilight of our golden day	H
Some lesson yet our wearied brains may learn	V2
Some leaves perhaps in life's thin volume turn	V2
How few they seem as in our waning age	W2
We count them backwards to the title page	W2
Oh let us trust with holy men of old	P2
Not all the story here begun is told	P2
So the tired spirit waiting to be freed	P2
On life's last leaf with tranquil eye shall read	P2
By the pale glimmer of the torch reversed	P2
Not Finis but The End of Volume First	P2

Oliver Wendell Holmes

Vestigia Quinque Retrorsum Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

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