University of Texas Austin - Cactus Yearbook (Austin, TX)

Page 16 text:

A vcspi ' i- bell with softly snk ' iiin ti)iigue SuiiiDKiiis the vdv Fi-niU ' iscan into ])i-iiy( ' r. While IViiiii the ci ' cmchiiiir i-|ii(iiii a savaj,fr erci ' ps, Willi woniliT nil his I ' aci ' : ami sacred-sweet As siimc hluiTcil cadiiicc of roi-i,rottcn son r (lutwi ' lls low worship i ' l-oiii the diapers heart. Tlieti the swift eurtaiiis elos( — and frrayness bides: (ii ' ay I ' liiii. ijray dreams, and. deepening every side, (rray sunset shadows, silkeninir to dusk. Vondei-, (deai ' -limned ai ainst a hroodini f sky, ' ilirant, ereet, alert, as if a-watc-li Beside the sepidebreil and mouldering Past, ] [arconi ' s wizard-ehild, the Present, stands. E ' en thus — the dreamer ' s soul finds voice — e ' en thu Hatli Man, wliose soaring genius ri als tiod ' s, Sha kled the tempest, taiiglit the lightning ' s tongue To frame in luunan-wise siich potent speech Une whispered word may wake the utmost shores Bevond the thunderous spaces of the seas;

Page 15 text:

AtM ission San J ose. In this luished heart of niin the dead Past sleeps, Heedless that Time ' s incessant, soft, slow feet Are beating stone on stone to drifting dust; Bound the gra y forehead of each carven saint (As if some lost dream of Corregio ' s Had in a reverent sunset found its soul) Quiver faint aureoles of pallid flame: And ere they die to wraitiis of dimmest gold Comes one who walks ofttimes his little day With strange, half-alien footsteps — comrading With days long-tombed and morrows yet euwombed — To drink the scene with worshipful, rapt gaze. And, swift as if by phantom lingers rent, The somber curtains of two centuries Before his vision sever silently — And lo ! how l)ravely ' mid the western wild A staunch young Mission stands! Through glimmering panes The tremulous glow of flickering tapers sifts. And, velvet-echoing on the murmurous air.

Page 17 text:

Tomorrow ' s sun shall see him, swift and strong. Mount the blue morning with a falcon ' s wing And speak his neighbors of the wheeling worlds. Thus far Man ' s mind, but hath his heart kept pace? Nay — but the voice protests — its steps are sure. Groping, perchance, a dim and tortuous way, But ever upward, sunward, unto light. Even today, though sordid eyes see not. Blind Selfishness and Ignorance and Greed, Corroding like these old gray Mission walls. Are crumbling, crumbling, steadily to doom: Let but a few more years on forward feet Sweep over them, and these shall fall to dust. And free winds scatter them to nothingness; Enlightenment and Tolerance and Truth Shall lift like towers in our ampler sky, Far-flashing to the peoples of all lands, Good tidings of that goodlier dawn-to-be. When none shall have dominion o ' er his kind : When Each shall labor for the weal of All; And each shall quaff, as from a common fount. To fullness of pure Knowledge, living Art, And that true Christliness that knows no creed: Then, imaged onli like his Maker, God, And stepping with his soul-side to the sun, Man shall be Man indeed. — Hilton E. Greer.