TO ANN ARBOR.
I stood at the top of the Boulevarde
And gazed at the valley below.
I saw the tall spires of the city
And the slow-moving Huron.
Aloft, on the opposite hill
I beheld the domes and the towers
Of the great University
That first of all the States
Upheld the lamp of learning
To the vast Middle West.
Then in memory I saw the grand old man
Who gave her her fine reputation—
Dr. Angell, our beloved President,
Who for thirty years there lived and ruled,
I thought of the men and women
Who had sat beneath his teaching
Then gone forth to fill their places in a world of men,
Lawyers and teachers and preachers.
And that large group of fine mettle
Who laid down their lives in foreign lands
To save the souls of the heathen.
I thought of the men who answered Columbia's call
When civil war threatened to rend her asunder.
Their memory clings round the cannon.
Then suffering Cuba called for aid,
And America sprang to arms,
And Michigan stood in the fore-front,
In the noblest war, until now, ever waged.
Not with a hope for selfish gain
But from pure love of humanity.
And Cuba free, Cuba libre,
Feels her heart throb with gratitude.
And to-day, in this mightiest conflict
Since ever the world began
Dries with a single voice:
"Take my money, my men, my all,
And use them as yours
To make the world safe for Democracy."
And Michigan's sons have gone out
In the pride of their lusty manhood
To offer them selves as a wall of men
Betwixt the world and the Hun.
To fight, perchance to fall!
If so, what then?
Better by far is a glorious death
Than a coward's life of dishonor.
O Michigan, mother of State Universities!
Thou art beloved of my soul,
As thou art of the souls
Of all thy myriad sons and daughters;
Long may you live and flourish
And stand, in the time to come,
As you stood in the days that are gone,
Ever in the front of the battle.
And gazed at the valley below.
I saw the tall spires of the city
And the slow-moving Huron.
Aloft, on the opposite hill
I beheld the domes and the towers
Of the great University
That first of all the States
Upheld the lamp of learning
To the vast Middle West.
Then in memory I saw the grand old man
Who gave her her fine reputation—
Dr. Angell, our beloved President,
Who for thirty years there lived and ruled,
I thought of the men and women
Who had sat beneath his teaching
Then gone forth to fill their places in a world of men,
Lawyers and teachers and preachers.
And that large group of fine mettle
Who laid down their lives in foreign lands
To save the souls of the heathen.
I thought of the men who answered Columbia's call
When civil war threatened to rend her asunder.
Their memory clings round the cannon.
Then suffering Cuba called for aid,
And America sprang to arms,
And Michigan stood in the fore-front,
In the noblest war, until now, ever waged.
Not with a hope for selfish gain
But from pure love of humanity.
And Cuba free, Cuba libre,
Feels her heart throb with gratitude.
And to-day, in this mightiest conflict
Since ever the world began
Dries with a single voice:
"Take my money, my men, my all,
And use them as yours
To make the world safe for Democracy."
And Michigan's sons have gone out
In the pride of their lusty manhood
To offer them selves as a wall of men
Betwixt the world and the Hun.
To fight, perchance to fall!
If so, what then?
Better by far is a glorious death
Than a coward's life of dishonor.
O Michigan, mother of State Universities!
Thou art beloved of my soul,
As thou art of the souls
Of all thy myriad sons and daughters;
Long may you live and flourish
And stand, in the time to come,
As you stood in the days that are gone,
Ever in the front of the battle.