University of Santa Clara - Redwood Yearbook (Santa Clara, CA)

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Entered Dec. 18, 1902. at Santa Clara. Cal.. as second-class matter, under Act of Congress of March 3, 1879 VOL. XXI SANTA CLARA, CAL., NOVEMBER. 1921 No. 1 EXILE TO DANTE HAT violing wind awakes still cKords in tKee, Once wailing in tKe winds of Paradise?— Florentian! suckling songs an ong tKe skies; Sounding the pools of deep Triunity, Thy Lyre attuned to Divinity: Virgil, to blest Bernard and Beatrice; Sad poet of the Lethe ' s slumbrous rise, And far Inferno thundering ceaselessly! Florentine bells from campaniles far, Contwined in lisping breezes fragrant still, Stir dusty memories of fantastic war, Forgotten feuds of Florence, thwarted will, Within thee while, east flowing languid are The Lethal shadows of the western hill. A. J. STEISS. IR. library University of Santa Clara

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REVEREND ZACHEUS J. MAHER, S. J. President

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Dante and Our Age George D. Pancera |TX hundred years ago in Ravenna, Guido Novello da Polenta delivered the funeral ora- tion over the re- mains of his friend, Dante Al- ighieri. And so Dante, the man is dead ; but on this, the occasion of the com- memoration of his decease, when prac- tically the entire Christian world is chanting his praises, Dante, the poet- ical genius, the inspiration and stimu- lator of undeveloped and developing? genius, lives on and enjoys an ever-ex- panding assemblage of devotees with the passing decades. How do we account for this rush to pay homage to the greatness of a poet of an age of tranquilitj ' , steadfastness and solid faith, when we ostensibly are living in an age that has sought to avoid these associations? Are we of this turbulent twentieth century seek- ing to find our way back from a path that was leading into the jungle of at- avism? Are we, in our spent and be- wildered, but happily newly-awakened condition, reaching out to the Floren- tine poet, as the supreme recorder of a century that was constant and secure, to furnish a morsel of sober reality to alleviate the unwholesome taste of up-to-date philosophy and artificiality upon which we have been feasting; all the time unaware that the air was reso- nant with the rumblings of a hundred screaming tocsins? The world has been copiously dream- ing on a plane of consciousness unre- lated to our present needs and condi- tions, but is now emerging, grimly re- alizing and ready to confess its pres- ent state by inscribing on its banner the single word, repletion . It has grown tired o f lurking in the shadows of life and now seeks God ' s pure sun- light. And where does it turn to ful- fill its desire? It looks to him who is the symbol of life. Dante was human, first, last and always, whether on the journeys to his imaginary Hell, Purga- tory or Paradise. We can appreciate and feel with Dante because he is man, but the indescribable man that is tonic for the neglected soul, the plaintive and meditative heart and the misguid- ed mind. A cursory glance through the master- piece, or even the simplest sonnet, pre- sents to the mind the impression of an arresting something that seems too ten- uous or diaphanous to describe ; a mo- ment of sober reflection, however, will prove it to be his aptitude to see at all times through the human eye. Dante, as others, delves into the abstract, but the concrete element is ever there to round out the picture. The world drinks from the golden urn of Dante ' s creative ingenuity, not because he was able to wield an easy and burnished pen, but because his pen