iSyiU Verse Making 



Notes which ring down through the ages, The 



Wakening men to nobler Hfe; Minnie- 

 Urging them to deeds of valor, song 

 Raising heroes in the strife, 



While the idle Minnesingers 

 Sang in some fair lady's bower 



Lovelorn ditties, soft and tender, — ■ 

 Songs to while the passing hour. 



Merry lives they lived, and careless 

 As a moth in summer's sheen. 



Till they slept, and nature o'er them 

 Loving spread her bedquilt green. 



When a boy I dreamed that ever 

 In the world's black moral night 



I would be a Mastersinger 

 Heralding the coming light. 



But, alas for youth's ambition! 



Idly now I drift along; 

 And I'm but a Minniesinger, 



And my life's a Minnie-song.^ 



Many of our contributions, however, were in 

 serious vein. Dudley in particular wrote some 

 things that were really fine. And Anderson's flights 

 were for the most part distinctly literary, harking 

 back in a degree to the Miltonic manner and fairly 

 presaging his masterpiece, a translation of the 

 "Divina Commedia" in its original terza rima. 

 Leavitt's verse was pleasantly human, dealing gently 

 with current afl^airs. For example: 



^ It should perhaps be added that our good friend was some years older 

 than any of us, her devoted admirers. 



C 69 3 



