18713 Verse Making 



Notes which ring down through the ages, The 



Wakening men to nobler life; 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. 1 



5 



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 affairs. For example: 



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

 than any of us, her devoted admirers. 



