Poetry Archives

On Bancroft height Aurora’s face
  Shines brighter than a star,
As stepping forth in dewy grace,
  The gates of day unbar;
And lo! the firmament, the hills,
  And the vales that intervene—
Creation’s self with gladness thrills
  To greet the matin queen.

On Bancroft height the atmosphere
  Is but an endless waft
Of life’s elixir, pure and clear
  As mortal ever quaffed;
And such the sweet salubrity
  Of air and altitude,
Is banished many a malady
  And suffering subdued.

On Bancroft height the sunset glow
  When day departing dies
Outrivals all that tourists know
  Of famed Italian skies;
And happy dwellers round about
  Who view the scene aright
In admiration grow devout
  And laud the Lord of light.

Round Bancroft height rich memories
  Commingle earth’s affairs,
Among the world’s celebrities,
  Of him whose name it bears;
The scholar-wise compatriot
  Who left to later men
The grand achievements unforgot
  Of that historic pen.

Fair Bancroft height revisited
  When all the land is white,
A halo crowns its noble head
  Impelling fresh delight;
The daring wish in winter-time
  The blizzard to defy
Those shining slippery slopes to climb
  Up nearer to the sky.

Though Boreas abrade the cheek
  With buffetings of snow,
He gives a vigor that the weak
  And languid never know;
And with rejuvenescent thrill,
  Like children everywhere,
Bestirs the rhapsody, the will
  To make a snow-man there.

On Bancroft height and Bancroft tower
  Such vistas charm the eye
’Twere life’s consummate, glorious hour
  But to behold—and die;
Yet in the sparkle and the glow
  Is earth so very fair
The spirit lingers, loath to go,
  And dreams of heaven—up there.