FRANKLIN MCDUFFEE

Oftentimes on these occasions When we gather in the winter, After all the maize is garnered, All the braves returned from hunting And from warring with their foemen, We have given all attention All applause and all approval To their mighty feats of daring To their conquests and their victories That by dint of brawn and muscle Have brought honor to our people; But tonight, tho not forgetting All the feats of strength and cunning That our young men have accomplished; Standing off the vicious Elis, Humbling then the tribe of Harvard, And the Ithacans and Bruins, Still a greater honor brings he Whom I next call to address you. None has come back to his people Bringing with him more of honor Bringing greater prize or trophy Than the warrior Frank McDuffee Of the tribe of one and twenty. With the blessing of the elders And the sheepskin that they gave him Forth he went into the forest Set his course unto the eastward To the shores of the Atlantic. There a staunch canoe he builded And across the big sea water Bravely paddled toward the sunrise; To the hunting grounds of Britain. There he wrestled with the warriors Sent from, all the friendly nations From New England to Australia, And the native tribes of England; With their bravest and their keenest Strove with skill and strove with cunning, Labored with much application In their ancient halls of learning; For their fairest prize contested Newdigate, the- prize of Oxford, Given for the choicest poem Written on a given subject. Nearly five score years and twenty, Great men have contended for it. And the list of those who won it Held the names of Britons only Till McDuffee the sweet singer,

Dreamer from the vale of Tempe, From the shaggy hills of Dartmouth, For the first time took it from them, By their own award he won it; And returning to his people Brings he now this greatest trophy, Places it upon the altar, Of America and Dartmouth. Therefore let us show unto him By our quiet and attention That no less than to the warrior, We give honor to the poet.