Happy Arbor Day! :)

Dear Members, Alumni, and Friends of the James Scholar Advisory & Leadership Team:

Today, the last Friday in April, is Arbor Day throughout the United States. It’s a great day to spend some time outdoors, enjoy Nature’s hidden wonder all around us, and maybe even plant a tree for the future! This bouquet of poems was chosen in honor of Arbor Day and the beautiful springtime that we’re having in Central Illinois.

“Trees” by Joyce Kilmer (1886-1918)

I think that I shall never see

A poem lovely as a tree.

A tree whose hungry mouth is prest

Against the sweet earth’s flowing breast;

A tree that looks at God all day,

And lifts her leafy arms to pray;

A tree that may in summer wear

A nest of robins in her hair;

Upon whose bosom snow has lain;

Who intimately lives with rain.

Poems are made by fools like me,

But only God can make a tree.

Prologue to the Canterbury Tales

By Geoffrey Chaucer (1340-1400)

When April with his showers sweet with fruit

The drought of March has pierced unto the root

And bathed each vein with liquor that has power

To generate therein and sire the flower;

When Zephyr also has, with his sweet breath,

Quickened again, in every holt and heath,

The tender shoots and buds, and the young sun

Into the Ram one half his course has run,

And many little birds make melody

That sleep through all the night with open eye

(So Nature pricks them on to ramp and rage) –

Then do folk long to go on pilgrimage,

And palmers to go seeking out strange strands,

To distant shrines well known in sundry lands.

Selected Poems by Evaleen Stein (1863-1923)

“Dandelion”

Hey-a-day-a-day, my dear! Dandelion time!

Come, and let us make for them a pretty little rhyme!

See the meadows twinkling now, beautiful and bright

As the sky when through the blue shine the stars at night!

Once upon a time, folks say, mighty kings of old

Met upon a splendid field called “The Cloth of Gold.”

But, we wonder, could it be there was ever seen

Brighter gold than glitters now in our meadows green?

Dandelions, dandelions, shining through the dew,

Let the kings have Cloth of Gold, but let us have you!

“Up, Little Ones!”

A robin redbreast, fluting there

Upon the apple-bough,

Is telling all the world how fair

Are apple-blossoms now;

The honey-dew its sweetness spills

From cuckoo-cups, and all

The crocuses and daffodils

Are dressed for festival!

Such pretty things are to be seen,

Such pleasant things to do,

The April earth it is so green,

The April sky so blue,

The path from dawn to even-song

So joyous is to-day,

Up, little ones! and dance along

The lilac-scented way!

Happy Arbor Day & Merry Marathon Weekend! :)

Rob

Remembering Father Abraham on the 150th Anniversary of His Martyrdom

April Leadership Reflection:

The Unfinished Business of Great Leaders

        Amid the hustle and bustle of everyday life in the 21^st century, we often expect our leaders to get things done NOW, finish EVERYTHING off, and leave NOTHING behind for anyone else to do. Short-term tasks are certainly time-sensitive and need to be completed ASAP; most of our professional work is like that, to be sure. But great leaders of the past challenged their successors and followers to complete the long-term work that they had begun. Why? It wasn’t because great leaders are lazy or delegate too much; it’s because some tasks are too big for any one person to finish within a single human lifespan.

        A sterling example of this type of long-term goal-setting, which leaves behind unfinished business for later generations to complete, can be found in the speeches and writings of Abraham Lincoln. This month, people around the world are commemorating the 150^th anniversary of his death on April 15, 1865. As we remember Lincoln’s long list of accomplishments, let us also resolve to continue working toward the long-term goals that he challenged the American people to achieve – the foremost among them being the continuous growth of liberty, equality, justice, and peace for all people everywhere, and for all time to come.

Excerpts from Selected Speeches by Abraham Lincoln

During His Presidency (1861-1865)

Annual Message to Congress:

December 3, 1861 (Concluding Paragraph)

        The struggle of today, is not altogether for today – it is for a vast future also. With a reliance on Providence, all the more firm and earnest, let us proceed in the great task which events have devolved upon us.

The Gettysburg Address:

November 19, 1863 (Complete Text)

        Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

        Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

        But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate – we cannot consecrate – we cannot hallow – this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us – that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion – that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain – that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom – and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Speech to the 166th Ohio Regiment:

August 22, 1864 (Complete Text)

        I suppose you are going home to see your families and friends. For the service you have done in this great struggle in which we are engaged I present you sincere thanks for myself and the country. I almost always feel inclined, when I happen to say anything to soldiers, to impress upon them in a few brief remarks the importance of success in this contest. It is not merely for to-day, but for all time to come that we should perpetuate for our children’s children this great and free government, which we have enjoyed all our lives. I beg you to remember this, not merely for my sake, but for yours. I happen temporarily to occupy this big White House. I am a living witness that any one of your children may look to come here as my father’s child has. It is in order that each of you may have through this free government which we have enjoyed, an open field and a fair chance for your industry, enterprise and intelligence; that you may all have equal privileges in the race of life, with all its desirable human aspirations. It is for this the struggle should be maintained, that we may not lose our birthright – not only for one, but for two or three years. The nation is worth fighting for, to secure such an inestimable jewel.

Second Inaugural Address:

March 4, 1865 (Concluding Paragraph)

        With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation’s wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan – to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations.

        In remembrance of President Lincoln (a Founding Father of the University of Illinois), I would like to encourage all our readers to take a few moments to read and reflect on the poem “Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight,” composed in 1914 (as a response to the outbreak of World War I) by Vachel Lindsay (1879-1931), a native of Springfield, Illinois. The text of the poem can be found online at http://www.bartleby.com/104/83.html, with a commentary at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Lincoln_Walks_at_Midnight.

“Lincoln” by Vachel Lindsay

Would I might rouse the Lincoln in you all,

That which is gendered in the wilderness

From lonely prairies and God’s tenderness.

Imperial soul, star of a weedy stream,

Born where the ghosts of buffaloes still dream,

Whose spirit hoof-beats storm above his grave,

Above that breast of earth and prairie-fire —

Fire that freed the slave.

150 Years Ago This Month: April 1865

Dear JSALT Members, Alumni, & Friends:

150 years ago this week, the American Civil War came to an end (April 9^th), and President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated by a Confederate sympathizer (April 14^th) and died the next morning (April 15^th). To help us remember those momentous happenings in April 1865, here are some reflections on the Civil War and Father Abraham, in both poetry and prose.

“Battle Cry of Freedom” (1862)

Composed by George Frederick Root (1820–1895)

1. Yes we’ll rally round the flag, boys, we’ll rally once again,

Shouting the battle cry of freedom,

We will rally from the hillside, we’ll gather from the plain,

Shouting the battle cry of freedom!

Chorus:

The Union forever! Hurrah, boys, hurrah!

Down with the traitors, up with the stars;

While we rally round the flag, boys, we rally once again,

Shouting the battle cry of freedom!

2. We are springing to the call of our brothers gone before,

Shouting the battle cry of freedom!

And we’ll fill our vacant ranks with a million freemen more,

Shouting the battle cry of freedom!

(Chorus)

3. We will welcome to our numbers the loyal, true and brave,

Shouting the battle cry of freedom!

And although they may be poor, not a man shall be a slave,

Shouting the battle cry of freedom!

(Chorus)

4. So we’re springing to the call from the East and from the West,

Shouting the battle cry of Freedom;

And we’ll hurl the rebel crew from the land we love best,

Shouting the battle cry of Freedom.

(Chorus)

Poem on the 100th Anniversary of the Birth of Abraham Lincoln (1909)

By Julia Ward Howe (1819-1910)

(Note: Howe was also the author of the “Battle Hymn of the Republic” in 1861.)

Through the dim pageant of the years

A wondrous tracery appears:

A cabin of the western wild

Shelters in sleep a new-born child.

Nor nurse, nor parent dear can know

The way those infant feet must go;

And yet a nation’s help and hope

Are sealed within that horoscope.

Beyond is toil for daily bread,

And thought, to noble issues led,

And courage, arming for the morn

For whose behest this man was born.

A man of homely, rustic ways,

Yet he achieves the forum’s praise,

And soon earth’s highest meed has won,

The seat and sway of Washington.

No throne of honors and delights;

Distrustful days and sleepless nights,

To struggle, suffer and aspire,

Like Israel, led by cloud and fire.

A treacherous shot, a sob of rest,

A martyr’s palm upon his breast,

A welcome from the glorious seat

Where blameless souls of heroes meet;

And, thrilling through unmeasured days,

A song of gratitude and praise;

A cry that all the earth shall heed,

To God, who gave him for our need.

Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) on Abraham Lincoln

Printed in the New York World – 1909

“Of all the great national heroes and statesmen of history Lincoln is the only real giant. Alexander, Frederick the Great, Caesar, Napoleon, Gladstone and even Washington stand in greatness of character, in depth of feeling and in a certain moral power far behind Lincoln. Lincoln was a man of whom a nation has a right to be proud; he was a Christ in miniature, a saint of humanity, whose name will live thousands of years in the legends of future generations. We are still too near to his greatness, and so can hardly appreciate his divine power; but after a few centuries more our posterity will find him considerably bigger than we do. His genius is still too strong and too powerful for the common understanding, just as the sun is too hot when its light beams directly on us.”

“Lincoln” by Vachel Lindsay (1879-1931)

Would I might rouse the Lincoln in you all,

That which is gendered in the wilderness

From lonely prairies and God’s tenderness.

Imperial soul, star of a weedy stream,

Born where the ghosts of buffaloes still dream,

Whose spirit hoof-beats storm above his grave,

Above that breast of earth and prairie-fire —

Fire that freed the slave.

In memoriam Patris Abrahami,

Robertus :)

“Your task is not to foresee the future, but to enable it.”

-- Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (1900-1944): The Wisdom of the Sands (1948)