Page:Poems Elliott.djvu/59

Victuri Salutamus

Dear school-day comrades, we are met to-day
To wish each other "God speed" on the way
Out into the wide future's unknown span
Of life, which waits for every maid and man.
The past, so full of busy happy hours,
Lies just behind us, and like spring-time flowers,
Will live in fragrant memories that shall last,
Till all the future blends into the past.
As hand clasps hand to-day in fond farewell,
How little of that future can we tell—
Whether, years hence, in happy glad surprise,
We look again into each other's eyes—
Or whether, asking tidings of a friend,
We learn that he has reached his journey's end—
Or mayhap we ourselves, unknowing now,
May first before Death's august presence bow.
Amidst the gladness of this happy day,
Some mournful notes upon our heart-strings play,
As sweetest music holds a minor strain,
So all our joy is not unmixed with pain.

The memory of the four years past is ours,
Some diligent, some sweetly vagrant hours,
A happy record of our time well spent,
Of joy and sorrow, struggle and content.
Of friendships made, which firm will stand for aye,
And only strengthen as the years go by;