Mary Baldwin College - Bluestocking Yearbook (Staunton, VA)

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20 THE AUGUSTA SEMINARY ANNUAL. Scott had the power in an unusual degree of producing broad and general effects with almost one sweep of his magic pencil. What more perfect description of lovely Loch Achray could we have than the one line : So lone a lake, so sweet a strand ! for even now, it is said, though haunted by tourists, if once you leave their beat you may get into complete quiet and solitude, sweet, not dreary. Again, in Marmion, with spell -bound steps we fol- low until we stand, with the holy hush of Nature creep- ing o ' er us, By lone St. Mary ' s silent lake. Nor pen nor sedge Pollute the pure lakes crystal edge. Abrupt and sheer, the mountains sink At once upon the level brink, And just a trace of silver sand Marks where the water meets the land, Nor thicket, dell nor copse you spy. Where living thing concealed might lie, There ' s nothing left to fancy ' s guess, You see that all is loneliness. ' ' The poem opens with an exquisite description of the set of day on Norham ' s castled steep. ' ' We see the battled towers and flanking walls shining in yellow lustre, while from the warriors ' armor flashes back again The western blaze In lines of dazzling light. But we have left the crimson sunset glow, and now was ever scene so sad and fair? We gaze on Melrose ' s ruins gray, over which the pale moonlight streams in un- certain showers, lighting up the ruined pile with its silver edges. Ah ! long would we linger here, listening to the beating of the distant Tweed and wrapped in the solemn mystery of night, but time rolls his ceaseless course, and though, in this never ending art-gallerj magical pictures never cease to charm our eyes and hearts, must we turn away our steps, and with the night fade into silence. Mamie Richmond.

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THK AUGUSTA SEMINARY ANNUAL. 19 grimage. Who docs not desire to stand, as did the Knight of Snowdoun and feast his eyes on the loveliness below, Where j, ' l cam ing with the scltinj sun, One burnished sheet of livinj( } uld, Lock Katrine lay Ixjueath him rolled, In all her lenj h far winding lay With promontory, creek, and bay And islands that, empurpled l)right Floated amid the livelier light, And mountains, that like giants stand To sentinel enchanted land. Or who might not even more love to linger at break of day on the edge of this most picturesque of lakes, and see and feel what Scott has expressed with tender and easy grace : The summer dawns reflected hue, To purple changed Lock Katrine blue. Mildly and soft the western breeze Just kissed the lake, just stirred the trees. And the pleased lake, like maiden coy. Trembled but dimpled not for joy ; The mountain shadows on her breast Were neither broken nor at rest In bright uncertainty they lie. Like future joys to Fancy ' s eye, — The gray mist left the mountain side. The torrent show ' d its glistening pride, — Invisible in flecked sky The lark sent down her revelry. We pause enraptured by the Trossach ' s deepest dell, wrap- ped in the glory of the setting sun, The western waves of ebbing day Rolled o ' er the glen their level way — Each purple peak, each flinty spire Was bathed in flood of living fire, — And creeping shrubs of thousand dyes, Waved in the west- winds summer sighs. ' ' And now ' ' The shades of eve come slowly down , The woods are wrapt in deeper brown. The owl awakens from her dell. The fox is heard upon the fell, and as darkness shrouds the fading scene, we turn silently away, awed by the sight and sounds of the magnificently pictured night.

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THK AUGUSTA SEMINARY ANXUAL. 21 Last Will and Testament of the Class-Prophet. O heavenly muse, I thence Invoke thy aid to my adventurous sonj While it pursues Things unattenipted yet in prose or rhinie. To write successfully the history of this class, the writer should have a readier pen than mine ; therefore, let it be said that this is but a brief sketch, intended to give an admiring public some idea of the Literature class of ' 91. What class more progressive, — for who before us has issued a Seminary Annual ? What one broader in its views ? — or able to boast of nobler representatives of the muse of the quill ? What brighter stars destined to shine in the literary firmament? To state the case briefly, and with the becom- ing modesty of ye little school-girls; — We are the people ! For our fame on brightest pages. Penned by poets and by sages, Shall go sounding down the ages. For us, the softer Adams of our Academe, Knowledge is no longer a fountain sealed. From the first days ot school, through the long winter months, and up to the delightfully lazy days preceding the Finals, the literature girl nobly shoulders the responsibility resting on her, and lives fi-om da} to day, drinking deep from Wisdom ' s Well. Indifferent alike to the world, the frivol ties of society, and the alluring wiles of creation ' s lords, she turns from Terpsichore to worship at the shrine of Minerva. Now she amuses herself by digging deep into English soil, and unearthing Anglo-Saxon roots; then she soars to the sublime heights of poesy, and lives in a world of her own. Her leisure hours are w hiled away in reading Burke and Bacon; Shakespeare is her wildest dissipation, and awful odes she writes, treating of Home Rule, Irish Emigration, Social and Religious Liberty, c. c. Yet, in spite of the hard work, there is no class more delightful, or instructive than this. As I write, a thousand memories come to me, bringing to mind the pleasant hours spent on Literature work, and in Literature class. In our circle, there is a gracious mingling of the at-