Milford High School - Oak Lily and Ivy Yearbook (Milford, MA)

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19 THE OAK, LILY AND IVY. Take up our quarrel with the foe! To you, from failing hands, we throw The torch; be yours to hold it high! If ye break faith with us who die We shall not sleep, though poppies grow In Flanders Fields.” One of the most promising of young English poets was Rupert Brooke, who met his death bravely while with the British Mediterranean Expeditionary Force less than a year after his entrance into the war as a volunteer. In his poem “The Dead” he voices the debt owed to those who, pouring out “the red sweet wine of youth,” made their country “rarer gifts than gold.” “Blow, bugles, blow! They brought us, for our dearth, Holiness, lacked so long, and Love, and Pain. Honour has come back, as a king, to earth, And paid his subjects with a royal wage; And Nobleness walks in our ways again; And we have come into our heritage.” Another poet whose works are especially moving is Robert W. Service, who speaking as a Red Cross man was able to see and understand! the struggles of the soldier of to-day and to interpret them. His admiration for the men who died willingly in the cause of glory and his tender sympathy for the soldiers maimed and shattered in the great war are realized after reading the group of his poems entitled the “Rhymes of a Red Cross Man.” In his poem “Wounded” he reveals to us the effect of war upon a man’s soul. “Ay, War, they say, is hell; it’s heaven too, It lets a man discover what he’s worth. It takes his measure, shows what he can do, Gives him a joy like nothing else on earth. It fires in him a flame that otherwise Would flicker out, these drab, discordant days. It teaches him in pain and sacrifice, Faith, fortitude, grim courage past all praise.” Robert Service’s last lines in his ow n collection of poems will make an alto¬ gether fitting conclusion to this brief review of the poetry of the war and contains the explanation of the high courage which can be found under the surface of all true poetry. From “L’Envoi” : “Oh spacious days of glory and of grieving! Oh sounding hours of lustre and of loss! Let us be glad we lived you, still believing The God who gave the cannon gave the Cross. Let us be sure amid these seething passions, The lusts of blood and hate our souls abhor: The Power that Order out of Chaos fashions Smites fiercest in the wrath-red forge of War. Have faith ! Fight on ! Amid the battle-hell Love triumphs, Freedom beacons, all is well.” Marion Huff, ’21.

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18 THE OAK, LILY AND IVY. Again we hear him urging England, and indirectly her allies, to make “iron sacrifice of body, will, and soul” that the world may conquer the foes which, as Drinkwater says in his poem “We Willed It Not,” have thrown to God the “tumult of their blasphemies.” I regret that there is little opportunity to speak of the poetry of Lawrence Binyon whose praise of Edith Cavell and her “soul so crystal clear” rises into the realms of true poetry, as well as his lines “To the Fallen” who are as the stars “that shall be bright when we are dust.” Especially interesting to Americans is Alan Seeger, since he was the first American soldier-poet to lose his life in France. Three weeks after the b eginning of the war he joined the Foreign Legion. It is interesting to read that because of his aloofness and reserve he was highly unpopular with his comrades, who voted that he be requested to transfer himself to another division, which, however, he re¬ fused to do. In this he is in direct contrast with the well loved Kilmer, whose works will be taken up by a later speaker. His literary efforts during the war are centered in a few short poems for there was little leisure time in army life to devote to writing, and though these may not equal, from the standpoint of workmanship, those he published before the war, there is no doubt but what they will be dearer to the hearts of men and just as widely read. The first poem written while he was in France was a vivid descrip¬ tion of the battle of the Aisne 1914-15 in which w e find the thought inspired with¬ in him by the war: “There we drained deeper the deep cup of life, And on sublimer summits came to learn, After soft things, the terrible and stern, After sweet Love, the majesty of Strife.” His last but best loved and hence best known poem is entitled “I Have a Rendezvous with Death.” This poem seems to be a premonition of his death which occurred a short while later and took from the world a man whose possi¬ bilities were very great and whose death caused a loss to the literary world which cannot be estimated. As we all know, he kept his “Rendezvous.” “God knows ’twere better to be deep Pillowed in silk and scented down, But I’ve a rendezvous with death At midnight in some flaming town, When Spring trips north again this year, And I to my pledged word am true, I shall not fail that rendezvous.” As Seeger’s work is finished, likewise is ended the labor of the Canadian Lieu¬ tenant-Colonel John McCrae. His poem “In Flanders Fields” is perhaps the most widely read and admired of the war verses. In this poem he hears the mes¬ sage of the dead whose voices urge the living to carry on: “We are the dead. Short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved and were loved; and now we lie In Flanders Fields.

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20 THE OAK, LILY AND IVY. CLASS HISTORY. The history of the Class of 1921, bounded by the four walls of the Milford High School, is indeed insignificant in comparison with the chronicle of world events which have occurred during the same period. Yet to the forty members of that Class it is of great importance, for their active participation in High School life will after to-night exist only in that history. Our history is of interest, also, to the people of the town of Milford for they know that a High school education makes better and more useful citizens of those who receive its benefits, that for four years we have been receiving the best education that this town affords, and that many of us will soon take up our future work in this town and help to carry on its affairs. While in the Milford High School, the Class of 1921 has been under the supervision of two principals, Mr. Christopher A. FitzGerald and Mr. Thomas J. Quirk, our present principal. Mr. FitzGerald’s stay with us was an interrupted one of two years, he having nobly answered the call for patriotic service when the w ' ar first broke out. Mr. FitzGerald resigned last year from his position as prin¬ cipal of the school and, while sincerely regretting his departure, we were more than pleased to learn that Mr. Quirk, who had guided us through the greater part of our Freshman year, was to lead us through our last year to graduation. It was, therefore, no stranger whom we welcomed as principal on the departure of Mr. FitzGerald, but one with whose methods we were thoroughly acquainted and one who had won our endearment and respect through our former association with him. To Mr. Quirk the Class of 1921 owes a debt of which it will be ever mind¬ ful, for it was largely through his untiring zeal and generous co-operation that we were able to make our Senior year activities what they were. He instilled in us the desire to accomplish things really big and worthwhile and he served as an in¬ spiration to us by the success he had made after leaving the Milford High School, he being the only alumnus of the school to return as its principal. During the first three years of High School life the class of 1921, as is the case with every other class, remained in the social background of school life, not being called upon to distinguish itself as a unit. Although these years brought no distinction to our class, we realize now that they were among the most important ones of our lives, for during that period we were being prepared 1 for the activi¬ ties of our Senior year and were laying the foundations of our future lives. In our Senior year, however, we assumed the initiative in the social life of the school and we believe that we have upheld the social prestige that this school has always maintained. We organized a dramatic club to promote the production of plays, which was known as the “Milford High School Dramatic Society.” This society, composed of all the members of our class, staged three plays, one of them in the Milford Opera House, all of which were successful from every standpoint and which re¬ flected credit on our class and on the school. To Miss Ruby Sutherland, teacher of Oratory in the High School, belongs a great part of the praise which these plays drew forth and we hope that many dramatic societies in the future will have the benefit of her instruction. These plays together with our dances and other activities enabled the School to outfit our football team as it had never been equipped before in the past ten or fifteen years and made possible our contribution of $150 toward a bronze honor roll commemorating the students of this school who served in the war. All our social successes are of minor importance, however, in comparison with the practical education we have received at the Milford High School. The