Classic and Contemporary Poetry
WORKS AND DAYS, by SAMUEL VALENTINE COLE First Line: Dare I this task? Ah! Mightier hands than / mine Last Line: "as stars do in the fulness of the day!" Subject(s): Anniversaries; Bowdoin College; Death; Prayer; Teaching & Teachers; Dead, The; Educators; Professors | ||||||||
Read at Bowdoin College at the public exercises commemorative of the one hundredth anniversary of the opening of that institution Dare I this task? Ah! mightier hands than mine Have wrought the song here by a right divine, Then passed, and left the memory of their grace And of their art forever in this place! Again I see him as he stands; I hear The voice that has been silent many a year; I give him reverence whom all men know As Bowdoin's sweetest singer. Ay, although I dare the task, 'tis but as one might dare Who lifts an instrument with tenderest care And, knowing well the difference, tries to play A little, when the master is away. Better and better does he understand That what he needs, the miracle to command, Is more than instrument: he needs the hand. I O VENERABLE walls and hallowed plain, And immemorial pines, whose soft refrain Of inarticulate voices overhead Sings round the white encampment of the dead; O faces, that forever to and fro Flash through the present from the long ago; Splendors of sunset flooding grove and hall, And thou, blue firmament, o'erarching all, What do ye say to us? What say ye not! Visions and voices, haunting every spot, Come thronging round me till I almost seem To walk to-day as in a realm of dream, And scarce may tell, while year flows into year, Which is the substance, which the shadow, here! The scenes and aspirations of our youth, The teachers and the comrades,these in truth Abide, and mould us, and become a part Of all we ever are in mind or heart! II A hundred years! What marvels have they wrought For truth and freedom and man's happier lot! As if the doors, long bolted, in some vast And inexhaustible treasure-house at last Flew suddenly open, and upon us rolled The great beginnings of the Age of Gold! And hast thou not, through these momentous years, Given of thy sons as leaders, pioneers, True workmen, who have wrested from the strife Something of true and good for human life? Have they not grappled manfully with the world? Where duty called was not their flag unfurled? When flashed the swords a million patriots drew On roaring fields, were not thy sons there too? And tell me, is it only chance or fate That makes them mighty counselors in the state? Search the wide land, and unto whom belong But thee its princes in romance and song, Hawthorne and Longfellow! Rememberest now Like the Greek mother in the fable thou Thy Castor and Pollux, who ride here no more Their milk-white steeds, but on the farther shore, And still shine back, thy great Twin Stars, to keep The faithful vigil o'er life's lonely deep. The time would fail me should I try to name The whole long list of honor or of fame; Nor can I wonder if, with such a cloud Of witnesses, thyself art waxing proud! III It was indeed a memorable hour That lifted on the plain this beacon tower For truth to shine from; have not eyes afar Beheld and wondered at the golden star Hung in the orient of our mighty land? Large-minded and far-visioned men, they planned Not for a day, who these foundations broad Established in the love and fear of God: They built for immortality; they drew Upon the future which by faith they knew, Believing, when they could not see or hear, The sure fulfillment of the far-off year. Nor on this high occasion be forgot Those other builders from whose word and thought And life itself streamed the mysterious power That moulds the man and shapes the coming hour. Of simple ways, of grave and gracious looks, Such teachers, they were better than the books They made and taught from; they were life and fire To make alive, and kindle, and inspire. IV But all the past is past, its glories dead, Its victories forgottenAh! what have I said? There is no past that is not present still; No present but the future will fulfill; Some Power amid these changes ever stays, And binds together all our works and days; And sunset passes into sunrise; we Face the large light of years that are to be. Lo, the untraveled future, with its dreams And possibilities, how vast it seems! How far its chartless distances recede, Filled with the signs we have no power to read; With shadowy forms, which life nor death yet claims, And visionary faces without names! What giants there will magic Science find, In caverns of the earth or air, and bind To service for the welfare of mankind? And waits there yonder, with new treasures fraught, Some undiscovered continent of thought? Another Tennyson? And Shakespeare's peer, Or greater one, in some far golden year? The triumphs rolling from our English speech Will bewho knows!to what we now can reach As billows are to ripples on the beach. And what and where will be the thrones of power? The Great Republicwill it in that hour Of larger things and nobler still seem great? And will it fill God's measure for the state? Will all the great and little peoples dwell In peace together? Let the future tell! I know not what it holds of good or ill; I only know the unthwarted Purpose still Will rule, and overrule, and shape, and blend All things as always toward one happy end. I know there will be doubtings, burning words, The right at war with wrong, the clash of swords; Songs will be sung, prayers said, and more and more Come sacrifice and victory,before The world, that hears now only the first chimes Of dawn, can reach the noonday of the times. I know there will be need of self-control, Strong will, clear mind, brave heart, heroic soul, As long as truth survives and seasons roll. And thou shalt hear, again and yet again, The great voice crying hither, "Give me men!" V Strong Mother, give them; 'tis thy pledge to make The boy into the man; teach him to take The motto of the old Bohemian king, "I serve," and follow it as a living thing; Tell him the laws of life and his own soul, What duty is, and which way lies the goal. Work deep into his being's inmost springs The spirit and power of elemental things, The truth that nature's every process fills, The strength and iron firmness of the hills, The gentleness and sunshine of the plain, The river's longing, as it seeks the main, The courage of the tide against the bars, The purity and patience of the stars, The quick obedience which all things pay The Hand that guides Arcturus on his way. Kindle thy children at the altar-fire Of noble purposes, till they desire Above all else what in itself has worth; Then send them to the ends of all the earth! VI O you, who dream of victories and to-day, With morning in your faces, march away, Behold, the letters blazoned across your sky Make one word only,OPPORTUNITY. But 'tis enough; 'tis all that brave men ask; The man himself, he must fulfill the task; Nor fate, nor chance, nor any star commands Success and failurenought but your own hands. To fail, and fail again, and none the less Keep faith and heart, that also is success; To gather gold or fame and be not true To truth and self, oh, that is failure too! Go, therefore, not as seekers after ease, Or place, or glory, or of things like these, But rather as men who think, and work, who bear Burdens, and in the world's great labors share; Yea, like great-hearted gentlemen of God, Able to tread where noblest feet have trod, And, shoulders square, eyes forward, to advance, Winning the mastery of circumstance, Till the glad earth, though dull of vision, see The men whom God intended you to be! The world is all before you; all the ways And words and blessings of unrisen days; Faint, through the unfolding shadow, breaks the glow Of friendly figures ye will some day know; And many a hand that beckons, many a voice That calls to bid you welcome and rejoice. And there are voices from behind that cry After you, half regret, half prophecy, Saying, "Oh, take to your strong hands the sign Which ours have carried in life's battle line; Yours be the valorous deeds we meant to do; The hope we missed fulfill itself in you; The word that faltered on our tongue, ring clear And trumpet-toned from yours to lift and cheer; The truth we caught but dimly, break in light Full-orbed at last upon your happier sight; The richer meaning of man's brotherhood We almost grasped, by you be understood." VII And still they cry, so human, so divine, These voices; cry to all that eager line Whose feet will cross these thresholds, and whose eyes, While the new century rounds into the skies, Will greet the dawn of many a glad surprise. Also to thee, dear Mother, do they cry; And all thy sons cry with them; gloriously Making one voice, that, mingling with the sound Of pine and river, foldeth thee around, And crieth: "Keep life's high ideal alway Burnished and bright; send thou thy golden ray Far down the aisles and avenues of time To where all lights end in one light sublime, As stars do in the fulness of the day!" | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE CORRESPONDENCE-SCHOOL INSTRUCTOR SAYS GOODBYE TO HIS POETRY STUDENTS by GALWAY KINNELL GRATITUDE TO OLD TEACHERS by ROBERT BLY TWO RAMAGES FOR OLD MASTERS by ROBERT BLY ON FLUNKING A NICE BOY OUT OF SCHOOL by JOHN CIARDI HER MONOLOGUE OF DARK CREPE WITH EDGES OF LIGHT by NORMAN DUBIE OF POLITICS, & ART by NORMAN DUBIE SEVERAL MEASURES FOR THE LITTLE LOST by NORMAN DUBIE A LADY'S PORTRAIT by SAMUEL VALENTINE COLE |
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