#WingedWordsWindsday: 11/3/2021 -- A Remembrance of Things Past

 

WINGED WORDS WINDSDAY

Compiled by Rob Chappell (@RHCLambengolmo)

Vol. 1, No. 1: November 3, 2021

 

A Remembrance of Things Past

Editor’s Note

                In 1959, the University had chosen to name its new flagship Honors Programs after Dr. Edmund J. James, the fourth President of the University of Illinois. Three years ago, I was researching James Scholar history in preparation for the Diamond Jubilee (60^th anniversary) of the ACES James Scholar Honors Program. I was assisted in my research by my intrepid student worker, Megan Finfrock. While we were in the midst of reviewing archival materials and conducting interviews with local experts, Megan was able to locate the gravesite of President James in the Mount Hope Cemetery in Urbana.

                We visited the gravesite on November 2, 2018 (All Souls’ Day, appropriately enough), and I read the following poem out loud as we stood there reflecting on President James’ legacy of academic excellence. It was a very moving experience for me, one that will stay with me for a long time yet to come. It’s amazing to think that the legacy of a great leader who served the University with distinction over 100 years ago inspired the creation of the James Scholar Honors Programs that I’ve been involved with for more than two decades.

 

Requiescat in potestate, Demarchus Jacomus!

Rest in power, President James!

 

“A Psalm of Life”

(What the Heart of the Young Man Said to the Psalmist)

By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882)

Tell me not, in mournful numbers,

Life is but an empty dream!

For the soul is dead that slumbers,

And things are not what they seem.

Life is real! Life is earnest!

And the grave is not its goal;

Dust thou art, to dust returnest,

Was not spoken of the soul.

Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,

Is our destined end or way;

But to act, that each tomorrow

Find us farther than today.

Art is long, and Time is fleeting,

And our hearts, though stout and brave,

Still, like muffled drums, are beating

Funeral marches to the grave.

In the world’s broad field of battle,

In the bivouac of Life,

Be not like dumb, driven cattle!

Be a hero in the strife!

Trust no Future, however pleasant!

Let the dead Past bury its dead!

Act — act in the living Present!

Heart within, and God overhead!

Lives of great men all remind us

We can make our lives sublime,

And, departing, leave behind us

Footprints on the sands of time;

Footprints, that perhaps another,

Sailing over life’s solemn main,

A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,

Seeing, shall take heart again.

Let us, then, be up and doing,

With a heart for any fate;

Still achieving, still pursuing,

Learn to labor and to wait.

 

Dr. Edmund J. James (1855-1925) was the fourth President of the University of Illinois from 1904 to 1920. This photo appeared in the 1912 edition of the Illio yearbook. (Photo Credit: Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons)