Chorus:
O Gloria, Victoria,
O Decus omnium,
O salve Universitas,
Michiganensium, Michiganensium.
O clara Universitas,—
Nec merum Caecubum,
Nec flores nimium breves,
Nec nard' Assyrium,—
At gloriam, victoriam,
Vovemus merito;
Nos tui cives, juvenes,
Tui perpetuo!
Scarcely less beautiful though apparently somewhat too full of classical allusions for the taste of the modern undergraduate is the "Goddess of the Inland Seas," the words of which, by Professor Gayley, are set to an old air by Joh. Peters.
Sing no more the fair Aegean,
Where the floating Cyclads shine,
Nor the honey'd slopes Hyblaean,
Nor the blue Sicilian brine,
Sing no storied realms of morning
Rob'd in twilight memories,—
Sing the land beyond adorning,
With her zone of inland seas.
Lo, the sacred fires of knowledge
In thy temple are enshrined,—
Through the cloisters of thy college
Choruses eternal wind!
And all other incense scorning,
Michigan, they bring thee these
Hearts of ours, and songs of morning,
Goddess of the inland seas.
The foregoing songs are all of a somewhat earlier generation. To these one more should be added. "The Friar's Song," sung for many years by "The Friars," a convivial student club which was eventually suppressed. The organization has lived, however, in the memories of many graduates and in the words and music of this song which was composed and written by the members as they drank and sang around their long table. The words are credited to Harold M. Bowman, '00.
Where no one asks the "who" or "why";
Where no one doth the sinner ply
With his embarrassments of guile;
Where's ne'er a frown but brings a smile,
And cares are crimes,—'tis sin to sigh,
'Tis wrong to let a jest go by,
And hope is truth, and life is nigh,
The bourns of the Enchanted Isle—
In College Days.
Then raise the rosy goblet high,—
The singer's chalice,—and belie
The tongues that trouble and defile;
For we have yet a little while
To linger,—You and Youth and I,
At Michigan.
Many beautiful songs have been added to the University treasury by the various Michigan Union Operas, of which not a few have survived the ephemeral popularity of the generations which witnessed the performances. These include, "When Night Falls, Dear," from "Michigenda," by Roy Dickinson Welch, '09, who also furnished the music for "A Faithful Pipe to Smoke," from "Culture," the words for which were written by Donal Hamilton Haines, '09. The opera "Koanzaland," by Donald A. Kahn, '07-'10, with the music by Earl V. Moore, '12, furnished two good songs, "In College Days" and "Michigan, Good-Bye" (with the collaboration of J. Fred Lawton, '11), while "Contrarie Mary" furnished a second "Friar's Song," by Robert G. Beck, 13l, and Willis A. Diekema, '14. All these songs, and many others, are now collected in a song-book.
Two ever-popular marches celebrate Michigan's prowess in athletics. "The Victors," by Louis Elbel, '96-'99, never fails to thrill a Michigan man when the band comes on the field, ushering in the team to its great strain: