Alameda High School - Acorn Yearbook (Alameda, CA)

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BS ey) N THE PLEASANT town of Stratford-upon-Avon, England, there , SW ) stands a low-roofed cottage where three hundred and fifty- two years ago William Shakespeare was born. “‘Its walls,’ says Washington Irving, “are covered with names and inscriptions in every language, by pilgrims of all nations, ranks and conditions, from the prince to the peasant; and present a simple but striking instance of the spon- taneous and universal homage of mankind to the great poet of nature.” Shakespeare is a great poet of nature, it is the “touch of nature” in his works that has made him not only England’s poet but the whole world’s kin. Homer, Dante, and Milton have immortalized their names in the world of literature; Shakespeare has immortalized his name in our hearts. We know really very little about Shakespeare personally, tradition and inference being responsible for many of the so-called facts on which our stories of his life are founded; but from his own writings we are enabled to know more of him than we would had he left a mass of facts for biographers to work with: for we can look into his soul. When he writes: “TI know a bank where the wild thyme blows, Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows, Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine, With sweet musk-roses, and with eglantine.”’ ae Daffodils That come before the swallows dare, and take The winds of March with beauty; violets dim But sweeter than the lids of Juno’s eyes Or Cytherea’s breath,’ we must infer that oftimes in his life he turned to nature and found in its beauty consolation and fresh inspiration. In his writings we see the man; courageous yet ever gentle and tender, great because his ideals were high and he lived in their glow and inspiration. The presence of love, truth, and charity in a human soul reveals a morality

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IN MEMORIAM Miss CHARLOTTE N. NEALE DIED MARCH 17, 1916 Calm, kindly, patient, strong in the quiet dignity of self control, broad in culture and experience, wise in sympathy and understanding ;—such was our friend and teacher, Miss Charlotte N. Neale. ‘We loved her for the loving thoughts which sped Straight from her heart, until they found their goa In some perplexed or troubled soul, And broke anew the ever living bread. We loved the mind courageous, which no dread Of failure ever daunted; whose control Of gentleness all opposition stole; We loved herself and all the joy she shed.”

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based not on the hope of salvation but on the knowledge that the divine things of life give the depth of understanding which is salvation. Just as a composer, aware of the beauty of the words before him, is stirred to the creation of music to convey them, so Shakespeare, moved by moral sublimity in nature gave form to his interpretations. This understanding gave him that spiritual insight which places him among the greatest of moral teachers. In all his plays crime and vice receive due punishment, and the simplest, smallest virtues are glorified. He appreciated love as a spiritual gift and obligation. And does he not teach us that virtue is but truth when he says: “O how much more doth Beauty beauteous seem By that sweet ornament which truth doth give! The Rose looks fair, but fairer it we deem For that sweet odour which doth in it live. The canker blooms have full as deep a dye As the perfumed tincture of the Roses: Hang on such thorns and play as wantonly, When summer’s breath their masked buds discloses; 3ut for their virtue only is their show, They live unwoo’d, and unrespected fade; Die themselves: sweet Roses do not so, Of their sweet Deaths are sweetest odours made.” And Shakespeare tells us of Mercy, the natural child of Truth and Love: “Wilt thou draw near the nature of the Gods? Draw near them then in being Merciful: Sweet Mercy is Nobility’s true badge.”’ His reverence for love, truth, mercy, and charity is the source from which have sprung his rich streams of thought to refresh man for ever more. We know that nature was his inspiration and that “the soul takes on something of the greatness of that which it truly admires.” — Russel Medcraft, Dec. ’16