Canastota High School - Toot Yearbook (Canastota, NY)

Page 10 text:

There Will Be No Peace Though mild clear weather Smile again on the shore of your esteem, And its colors came back, the storm changed you: You will not forget, ever, The darkness blotting out hope, the gale Prophesying your downfall You must live with your knowledge Way back, beyond, outside of you are others In moonless absences you never heard of, Who have certainly heard of you, Beings of unknown number and gender, And they do not like you. What have you done to them? Nothing? Nothing is not an answer: You will find yourself thinking—how can you help it?— That you did, you did do something; You will find yourself wishing you would make them laugh, You will long for their friendship. There will be no peace: Fight back, then, with such courage as you have And every unchivalrous dodge you know of, Clear in your conscience on this; Their cause, if they had one, is nothing to them now, They hate for hate’s sake. W. H. Auden