Since Those Young Days

Read, at the Memorial Service for the departed members of the Class of 1914,Dartmouth College, held on the steps of Dartmouth Hall, June 20, 1954

Since those young days, two score and more we count The autumns that have leaped in leafy flame Across these hillsides, and as many times White-footed campus elms have lifted up Bare, shivering arms against a freezing sky Before a bashful spring learned how to tame The winter's wildness. Long, so long the time Since those young days when first we clasped your hands, Comrades who no more walk with us along These well worn, well loved pathways, friends of youth, Departed, fallen with the falling leaves Or covered by the winter's snowy shroud Or withered in the growing time. We stand To mark your mem'ry with a reverent pause. Compounded half of sorrow for your loss And half of sweetness in remembering. We look in vacant sunshine for your smiles And only echo answers to your names. A gray-winged shadow that we've only known Since those young days broods darkly on our hearts.

Yet, somehow, here a sorrowful farewell Rings false. So casually we parted here, So confident that here we'd meet again! Because we see you not is that bright faith Snuffed out? We meet you never here again? No! You are here and walk in brighter light Than western sun upon the old White Row; Above the tower's chimes your voices call; Too dim our eyes, too dull our ears to catch What only faith may apprehend. We know The dream fades not that reared these hallowed halls, Nor fail the spirits who have caught the dream. We share the dream with you; we greet you here; And, by our loves and by th' Eternal Love We pledge, youth's friends, that here with you we'll know Nor time, nor change, nor death, since those young days!