Richard Hovey

The sunlight falls on Richard Hovey's grave, As men of Dartmouth for his birthday gather And sing the immortal lyrics which he gave To weld his college and her sons together. Green in the spring, North Andover's hills rise; While Lake Cochichewick below them mirrors A poet's boyhood dreams that reach the skies On wings of song which soar above youth's errors. What though his life was brief, and though the years At last will make this granite marker fade, His poems shall ring forever in the ears Of Dartmouth's sons, in deathless accolade, That fellowship may live, and truth prevail Where men of Dartmouth walk on life's high trail!

Written on the dedication of the marker of New Hampshire granite on the grave of Dartmouth's poet laureate in Ridgewood Cemetery, North Andover, Mass., May 4, 1957.

(Copyright 1957 by William Plumer Fowler)