Youth and Pioneers: An Ode

Adapted by Daniel Godsil from Carl Sandburg's Speech, "Youth and Pioneers: And Ode," delivered on June 15, 1937, upon the rededication of Old Main

Music by Daniel Godsil

I am a child of time.
I celebrate the pathos and dignity of time.

Time used me with snow and rain,
Time used me with wind and frost,
Time use me with snow and rain, wind and frost, rust and rot,
'til I was falling away.

Unless loving and thoughtful hands had come to my aid,
I would have vanished, a shattered form.

Here to my doors have come the feet, the faces and voices of the young.
Here from my windows generations gazed out on the world, gazed in on themselves;
here the dreamers and builders came, the builders and dreamers of sacred dreams.
Here generations of pioneers, the youth now living, the youth as yet unborn.

None shall look at this hour and say: we did not have hope and faith in them.

One thing I know deep out of time: that youth, when lighted and alive,
is strong for struggle and not afraid
Of any toils or dangers or punishments or deaths.

In plain work done with honesty, actions of courage and endurance, lighted with inner humility,
balancing discipline and freedom: they shall clothe human dignity.

What shall be the course? For the answers, read if you can:
the strange and baffling eyes of youth.