In honor of National Poetry Month and the upcoming Boneyard Arts Festival, April 12-15, we here at the Archives want to offer you a poem, The Boneyard.
Written by Edgar Welton Cooley in 1925 the title page reads thus:
The Boneyard
What sage or sagamore may judge the raven by its quills,
The arrow by its quiver, or the river by its rills?
For e’en the raven knows the sun, the arrow speed afar,
And the river sings of many things-the earth, the sea, a star!
What fledging, then forsooth, may judge the Boneyard by its muck —
Too base as sanctuary for illustrious Illibuck?
What moment though its mirror nor stately hill nor glen,
If so, like Pan, it tunes its lute to singing hearts of men?
The Boneyard! Blessed vagabond of campus and of town,
A spur to pad and helmet, a song for cap and gown,
By Sophs adored, by Juniors loved, by Seniors idolized,
Dread baptist and confessor when some Freshman is baptized…
The poem continues on for several more stanzas. If you would like read the complete poem we have it in the Archives along with photographs, histories, and environmental studies of the famed Boneyard.
Sherrie, Archives Librarian