Yale University Prize Poem 
 1905 
 
 -~., 
 
 M^S^m 
 
 r'm- 
 
 .
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 AT LOS ANGELES
 
 YALE UNIVERSITY PRIZE POEM
 
 YALE UNIVERSITY PRIZE POEM 
 
 1905 
 
 LUX ET VERITAS, AND 
 OTHER SONNETS 
 
 BY 
 
 GEORGE BREMNER TENNANT 
 
 NEW HAVEN 
 
 THB TUTTLH, MOREHOUSE, & TAYLOR Co. 
 1905
 
 536 
 IA 
 
 1 
 
 PREFATORY NOTE 
 
 These sonnets received the eighth award of the prize 
 offered by Professor Albert Stanburrough Cook to 
 Yale University for the best unpublished verse, the 
 Committee of Award consisting of Dr. Charles G. 
 Osgood, Professor George H. Palmer, and Mr. 
 Lewis Frank Tooker. 
 
 235135
 
 LUX ET VERITAS 
 
 All powerful Orb, thou source of life and light, 
 Save us, who on life's troubled seas embark ! 
 Bend thy strong rays, and drive away the dark, 
 Nor let our souls, enveloped in the night, 
 Struggling in doubt, uncertain of the way, 
 Meet shipwreck in the fog of unbelief. 
 Let there be light to show the hidden reef- 
 Light that shall make our night a glorious day : 
 Then our unclouded eyes may scan the deep, 
 Mark the true course, shut else from out our sight ; 
 And though with flapping sails we slowly creep 
 Towards the home port, yet with our bearings right, 
 Steadfast we'll be, nor let the helmsman sleep. 
 On to the end we'll go with Truth and Light !
 
 BY THE FIRESIDE 
 
 Without, the crooning wind with drifting snow 
 Swaddles the new-born year in spotless white ; 
 I hear the soft-voiced music of the night 
 Like a young mother's song, as, bending low 
 O'er her babe's cot, she bids the voyager go 
 Into the land of dreams. In my firelight 
 This picture seems to live ; and, waxing bright, 
 Quickens my pulses with a genial glow. 
 My book unread lies idle on my knee, 
 While visions of what might be throng the blaze- 
 Dramas in which dull pages play no part. 
 A maid with tender face and loving heart 
 Flashes a smile amidst the embers' haze 
 That seems to tell of Love's infinity.
 
 AS TO SOLITUDE 
 
 Oft have I learned of solitary joys, 
 
 When some sweet bard, becoming Nature's child, 
 
 Has breathed in song his love of pathless wild 
 
 Or lonely shore, where no discord annoys 
 
 The ear attuned to God ; where naught destroys 
 
 The inward eye's clear vision undefiled, 
 
 Which, by some cloud or flower a time beguiled, 
 
 Forgets man's wanton world of trifling toys. 
 
 But as I picture to myself the shore, 
 
 Its tawny sands, the white-crowned, rolling sea- 
 
 I love it none the less, nay, rather more, 
 
 Because I feel that Nature's voice to me 
 
 Would ring out clearer far than e'er before 
 
 Down by the soft-lipped waves, alone with thee !
 
 TO HIS MISTRESS SLEEPING 
 
 O sweet my Love, unlock those slumbrous eyes, 
 
 And let those twin bright suns, now set in sleep, 
 
 Bring back a radiant day, and swiftly sweep 
 
 All clouds of darkness from thy lover's skies. 
 
 Look on me ! Speak ! Why should these gentle sighs 
 
 Be lost on thy deaf pillow? See how deep 
 
 The haven in those arms, where fast I'll keep 
 
 My argosy, my more than priceless prize. 
 
 Part those red lips, and with thy dimples make 
 
 The smile that fires the tinder in my heart, 
 
 Till I could crush thee in my close embrace. 
 
 O sweet my Queen, bid drowsy sleep depart, 
 
 For time is fleeting with relentless pace : 
 
 My arms are waiting, dear one, come, awake !
 
 LEES 
 
 The wine is gone ; within the glass remains 
 
 Naught but the lees. But still the lees are there, 
 
 Breathing a subtle fragrance in the air 
 
 Of that glad draught that banished all my pains, 
 
 And tinged the garish day with roseate glow ; 
 
 An odor sweet that mounts unto my brain, 
 
 And speaks of vanished joys that ne'er again 
 
 May live. But since the way of life is so 
 
 Since joys are short, but memories are long 
 
 I linger o'er my wine with loving sips. 
 
 Then from my heart there wells a burst of song 
 
 That seeks to find expression on my lips ; 
 
 And when in praise of wine friends sing their glees, 
 
 I praise wine too, but thank God for the lees ! 
 
 235135
 
 Ufc = \L1F 
 
 LO 
 
 RY 

 
 - 
 
 
 
 ; 
 
 UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 
 
 
 4, 
 
 ..-- -^.^ 
 ^ v - 
 
 m i