Appendix M 



ON A PORTRAIT OF DAVID STARR JORDAN 

 AT THE AGE OF TWENTY-ONE 



Such were his features clear and frank, 



His mildly penetrating glance, 

 Before Time scarred the surface blank 



With lines of grave significance. 



Time found in that unwrinkled brow 

 An outline for the work he planned: 



Compare the living portrait now 

 As fashioned by the master-hand! 



Where just the promise of a soul 



Began to dawn upon the face, 

 Time traced deep lines of self-control, 



And toil, and thought, but nothing base. 



To set high light in bold relief 



Time plunged the background in eclipse; 



So out of gloom and bitter grief 



Brighten sweet smiles upon the lips. 



Darkly did Time the face enshroud 



And characters of pain disclose: 

 At set of sun the heaviest cloud 



Is flushed with orange and with rose. 



Since, in long process of the sun, 



The pencil traced no lines amiss, 

 Time bids you, now that all is done, 



"Look on this picture, and on this!" 



Time, craftsman tacit and aloof, 



Who crosses many a hopeful plan, 

 Here gives the paradox approof, 



"The child is father of the man"; 



For here the shy prelusive grace 

 That often withers, scarce unfolded, 



Pervades the whole benignant face 



By seventy winters carved and molded. 



MELVILLE BEST ANDERSON 



For the Nineteenth of January, 1921 



C 83 3 



