Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, MEMORIAL HALL, by CHRISTOPHER PEARSE CRANCH



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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

MEMORIAL HALL, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Amid the elms that interlace
Last Line: In deathless glory with their names.
Subject(s): Cambridge, Massachusetts


AMID the elms that interlace
Round Harvard's grounds their branches tall,
We greet no walls of statelier grace
Than thine, our proud Memorial Hall.

Through arching boughs and roofs of green,
Whose dappled lights and shadows lie
Along the turf and road, is seen
Thy noble form against the sky.

And miles away on fields and streams,
Or where the woods the hill-tops crown,
The monumental temple gleams,
A landmark to each neighboring town.

Nor this alone. New England knows
A deeper meaning in the pride
Whose stately architecture shows
How Harvard's children fought and died.

Therefore this hallowed pile recalls
The heroes young and true and brave,
Who gave their memories to these walls,
Their lives to fill the soldier's grave.

The farmer, as he drives his team
To market in the morn, afar
Beholds the golden sunrise gleam
Upon thee, like a glistening star.

And gazing, he remembers well
Why stands yon tower so fair and tall;
His sons, perhaps, in battle fell:
For him, too, shines Memorial Hall.

And sometimes as the student glides
Along the winding Charles, and sees
Across the flats thy glowing sides
Above the elms and willow-trees,

Upon his oar he'll turn and pause,
Remembering the heroic aims
Of those who linked their country's cause
In deathless glory with their names.





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