Classic Poem

THE AUTHORS' CLUB RECEPTION, NEW YORK, DECEMBER 6, 1900

IT is a various tribute you command,
O Poet-seer and World-sage in one! —
The scholar greets you; and the student; and
The stoic — and his visionary son:
The painter, harvesting with quiet eye
Your features; and the sculptor, dreaming, too,
A classic marble figure, lifted high
Where Fame's immortal ones are waiting you.

The man of letters, with his wistful face;
The grizzled scientist; the young A. B.;
The true historian, of force and grace;
The orator, of pure simplicity;
The journalist — the editor, likewise;
The young war-correspondent; and the old
War-seasoned general, with sagging eyes,
And nerve and hand of steel, and heart of gold.

The serious humorist; the blithe divine;
The lawyer, with that twinkling look he wears;
The bleak-faced man in the dramatic line;
The social lion — and the bulls and bears;
These — these, and more, O favored guest of all,
Have known your benefactions, and are led
To pay their worldly homage, and to call
Down Heaven's blessings on your honored head.


Ideal, to the utmost plea of art —
As real, to labor's most exacting need —
Your dual services of soul and heart
Enrich the world alike in dream and deed:
For you have brought to us, from out the mine
Delved but by genius in scholastic soil,
The blended treasures of a wealth divine, —
Your peerless gift of song — your life of toil.