Muhlenberg College - Ciarla Yearbook (Allentown, PA)

Page 16 text:

Muse — you who breathed in the tale of the wrathful but noble Achilles Sounds of the clamor of war and the whirl- ing wheels of the chariot, Bringing the dieties down from their mount to compete in the combat, Till, ’mid the flames of their homes, the Trojans surrendered their city: Guide of Odysseus’ prow through waters forever adventurous, Ending at last on the shore where the Ithacan wife waited weaving: Scholarly Muse of the West — who gave to the god-like Aeneas Dutiful purpose to find for his people a home on the Tiber — Purpose so firm that the beauties of Dido herself could not hold him Far from his goal — across silvery seas from that land of the sunset. ..Sway, [

Page 15 text:

uuc 01 uic past uiai is lost under countless ages of ruins, Rises, like mist from the sea when the Sun wakes all things from slumber, One little cloudlet of smoke, which, rising through numberless ages, Bringing the odors of years that were crowded with wand’rings heroic, Rises persistently still, and at last finds its way to the present. All that remains of the glory that once was the theme of the poets — Poets whose songs could hold breathless the mobs in the market of Athens? All that remains? Is this all? Yes — but, from the source of the ancients, May we but feel the presence of that in- spiration etherial Rising with beauty yet, in that one litde cloudlet of smoke!

Page 17 text:

r Muse — who enabled that sightless bard to see more than the seeing, Taking him through the forbidden boundar- ies of hell and of heaven, Making his pages blaze with the fiery swords of Jehovah, Causing his phrases to burn in the sulphur- ous flames of Inferno: Muse, though we offer no tale that compares with these songs of the ancients, Though we can sing not of heroes — permit us to dream. Breathe on the fire of the past the breath of the waters of Lethe! Thus may the smoke that arises erase all our thoughts of the present, Leaving us — just for a while — timeless among the immortals; Leaving us heroes or gods on the shores of the Mediterranean.