Milton, thou shouldst be living at this hour,

Really thou shouldst, because I have need of thee,

And all thy power.

Shelley and Keats, John Ciardi, and Ogden Nash,

Thou plurally shouldst be living at this hour,

Such is the predicament Tufts is in,

A predicament sloshing halfway up the shin.

I suppose the latter two are living, if you call it living,

Which is perhaps a little rash.

But oh, how verily and notwithstanding and forsooth

I have need of them tonight, and that's the truth.

Robert Frost, asked to write an Ode

To Education, thereupon did so,

Saying, Oh Education! Oh! Oh!

And Education felt thoroughly oh -d.

Frost, thou shouldst be on hand tonight

To help me get this ode oded right.

It was easy for Wordsworth.

he had his two. birds 'worth

In one bush and built on

What he knew about Milton.

Milton he said loudly, thou shouldst be etcetera.

England hath need of thee: she is a fen

Of stagnant waters, and getting no betterer.

Clearing his throat a little, but not very much,

A touch I insert here to get in the human touch,

He went on to say, Oh raise us up!

We are selfish men.

Return to us again,

And give us manners, virtue, freedom, power,

And hurry up before things get any worse.

All this is in the Oxford Book of EnglishVerse.

Thy Soul was like a Star,

William went on to say,

And dwelt apart .

He was trying to get a start,

And carried on for

Several more lines that way.

Poets hate to come to the point.

He meant the joint was out of joint.

Now I, having the rank of local bard,

Hired to make the going seem hard,

And give this opera a sort of literary odor

Without seeming a supernumerary free-loader,

But worth every cent I'm paid,

Must summon to life a local shade,

Our founding father, our greatest ghost,

First prexy, preacher, and provost,

Who what no one else around this place seems to be able to do,

He can,

And therefore I now loudly remark, Hosannah Hosea Ballou!

Ballou, thou shouldst be living at this hour!

Tufts hath need of thee: she is a mound

Of ants, an anthill of men running around

And around brick buildings and a stone tower,

Men who scurry,

Men who sit in offices and worry,

Men who hurry

From one office to another to worry

In larger numbers, a Committee,

And they in turn scurry

Around to city and bigger city,

And wearier worry.

I'm telling you,

Hosea Ballou,

It ain't pretty.

Busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, that's us.

Money money, money, money, money money, money, what a fuss.

Hurry, scurry, , scurry, hurry, worry, worry, worry, we're 're on a hook.

Never a minute to pick up a book or lay down a book,

Or stand a while and think a thought, or simply not,

Or wonder what it is that every one of us was born for

And cannot carry out, but can only feel forlorn for.

Interpolation, extravagation, articulation, communication,

Ratiocination, fumigation, coagulation, exasperation -

Ballou, thou shouldst be living at this hour.

Goddard knows what'll become of us if you don't

Give us back manners, virtue, freedom, power.

Not that I think for a minute that you won't.

But Hosea, be a sport. .

Our time is getting short.

Thy Soul is like a Star,

As the man said,

But, please, Hosea,

Don't let it go to your head.

Hosea, have a heart.

Don't dwell apart.

We never intended to have you known as an office building,

With elevators, and drapes, and pillars with daffodillding,

With inlaid outlay, floors with tile, and doors with gilding.

We never intended to have you looked at as merely a picture,

A sort of a century-ancient president-minister mixture,

A fine old monument of a man with a face a fixture.

We never intended to flatten you onto a wall in paint.

Aren't you cold up there? Are you feeling a little faint?

Aren't you tired of looking like a Universalist saint?

Aw, come on down.

Take off that blue and brown

First presidential frown.

Shed that big gown.

Be a man about town.

Aw, come on down.

HOSEA BALLOU, COME DOWN OFF THAT WALL.

HOSEA BALLOU, COME DOWN OFF THAT WALL.

HOSEA BALLOU, COME DOWN OFF THAT WALL.

Come down off that wall, Hosea.