Oglethorpe

An Ode to be read on the laying of the foundation stone of the new Oglethorpe University, January, 1915, at Atlanta, Georgia I.     As when with oldtime passion for this Land     Here once she stood, and in her pride, sent forth     Workmen on every hand,     Sowing the seed of knowledge South and North,     More gracious now than ever, let her rise,     The splendor of a new dawn in her eyes;     Grave, youngest sister of that company,     That smiling wear     Laurel and pine     And wild magnolias in their flowing hair;     The sisters Academe,     With thoughts divine,     Standing with eyes a-dream,     Gazing beyond the world, into the sea,     Where lie the Islands of Infinity. II.     Now in these stormy days of stress and strain,     When Gospel seems in vain,     And Christianity a dream we've lost,     That once we made our boast;     Now when all life is brought     Face to grim face with naught,     And a condition speaking, trumpet-lipped,     Of works material, leaving Beauty out     Of God's economy; while, horror-dipped,     Lies our buried faith, full near to perish,     'Mid the high things we cherish,     In these tempestuous days when, to and fro     The serpent, Evil, goes and strews his way     With dragon's teeth that play     Their part as once they did in Jason's day;     And War, with menace loud,     And footsteps, metal-slow,     And eyes a crimson hot,     Is seen, against the Heaven a burning blot     Of blood and tears and woe:     Now when no mortal living seems to know     Whither to turn for hope, we turn to thee,     And such as thou art, asking"What's to be?"     And that thou point the path     Above Earth's hate and wrath,     And Madness, stalking with his torch aglow     Amid the ruins of the Nations slow     Crumbling to ashes with Old Empire there     In Europe's tiger lair. III.     A temple may'st thou be,     A temple by the everlasting sea,     For the high goddess, Ideality,     Set like a star,     Above the peaks of dark reality:     Shining afar     Above the deeds of War,     Within the shrine of Love, whose face men mar     With Militarism,     That is the prism     Through which they gaze with eyes obscured of Greed,     At the white light of God's Eternity,     The comfort of the world, the soul's great need,     That beacons Earth indeed,     Breaking its light intense     With turmoil and suspense     And failing human Sense. IV.     From thee a higher Creed     Shall be evolved.     The broken lights resolved     Into one light again, of glorious light,     Between us and the Everlasting, that is God.     The all-confusing fragments, that are night,     Lift up thy rod     Of knowledge and from Truth's eyeballs strip     The darkness, and in armor of the Right,     Bear high the standard of imperishable light!     Cry out, "Awake! I slept awhile! Awake!     Again I take     My burden up of Truth for Jesus' sake,     And stand for what he stood for, Peace and Thought,     And all that's Beauty-wrought     Through doubt and dread and ache,     By which the world to good at last is brought!" V.     No more with silence burdened, when the Land     Was stricken by the hand     Of war, she rises, and assumes her stand     For the Enduring; setting firm her feet     On what is blind and brute:     Still holding fast     With honor to the past,     Speaking a trumpet word,     Which shall be heard     As an authority, no longer mute. VI.     Again, yea, she shall stand     For what Truth means to Man     For science and for Art and all that can     Make life superior to the things that weight     The soul down, things of hate     Instead of love, for which the world was planned;     May she demand     Faith and inspire it; Song to lead her way     Above the crags of Wrong     Into the broader day;     And may she stand     For poets still; poets that now the Land     Needs as it never needed; such an one     As he, large Nature's Son     Lanier, who with firm hand     Held up her magic wand     Directing deep in music such as none     Has ever heard     Such music as a bird     Gives of its soul, when dying,     And unconscious if it's heard. VII.     So let her rise, mother of greatness still,     Above all temporal ill;     Invested with all old nobility,     Teaching the South decision, self control     And strength of mind and soul;     Achieving ends that shall embrace the whole     Through deeds of heart and mind;     And thereby bind     Its effort to an end     And reach its goal. VIII.     So shall she win     A wrestler with sin,     Supremely to a place above the years,     And help men rise     To what is wise     And true beyond their mortal finite scan     The purblind gaze of man;     Aiding with introspective eyes     His soul to see a higher plan     Of life beyond this life; above the gyves     Of circumstance that bind him in his place     Of doubt and keep away his face     From what alone survives;     And what assures     Immortal life to that within, that gives     Of its own self,     And through its giving, lives,     And evermore endures.