Speech upon Yale Nature Walk Day
Marta Wells: O that we now had here
But one ten thousand of those trees in Connecticut
That are not seen to-day!
Erika: What’s she that wishes so?
My teacher Marta Wells? No, my fair teacher;
If Yale Nature Walk is mark’d to die, we are enough
To do our country loss; and if to thrive,
The fewer trees, the greater share of Yale Nature Walk.
God’s will! I pray thee, wish not one tree more.
By Jove, I am not covetous for grades,
Nor care I who doth feed upon my fruits;
It yearns me not if classmates my waders wear;
Such outward things dwell not in my desires.
But if it be a sin to covet Yale Nature Walk,
I am the most offending soul alive.
Oscar: No, faith, my teacher, wish not a tree from Connecticut.
God’s peace! I would not lose so great an honour
As one tree more methinks would share from me
For the best hope I have. O, do not wish one more!
Rather proclaim it, Marta Wells, through my host,
That he which hath no stomach to this Yale Nature Walk,
Let him depart; his passport shall be made,
And the shuttle schedule put into his purse;
We would not live in that tree’s company
That fears his fellowship to live with us.
Erika: This day is call’d the feast of Yale Nature Walk.
The tree that outperforms this day, and comes safe to the webpage,
Will stand a tip-toe when this day is nam’d,
And rouse tree at the name of Yale Nature Walk.
The tree that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast their neighbours,
And say ‘To-morrow is Yale Nature Walk.’
Then will they shed their leaves and show their fruit,
And say ‘These views I had on Yale Nature Walk.’
Yale graduates forget; yet all shall be forgot,
But the tree’ll remember, with advantages,
What feats we did this day.
Oscar: Then shall the names,
Familiar in your mouths as household words-
Hari the King, Oscar and Erika,
Dr. Wells and Cameron,
Be in their flowing cups freshly rememb’red.
This story shall the good professor teach her students;
And Yale Nature Walk shall ne’er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remembered-
Erika: We few, we happy few, we band of E&EB 223 2017;
For they to-day that learn of trees with me
Shall be my sibling; be they ne’er so anti-Nature,
This day shall gentle his condition;
And students in the residential colleges now-a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs’d they were not here,
And hold their educations cheap whiles any speaks
That stood with us upon Yale Nature Walk.