Into the dust of the making of man + 

Spirit was breathed when his life began, + 

Lifting him up from his low estate, + 

With masterful passion, the wish to create. + 

Out of the dust of his making, man + 

Fashioned his works as the ages ran; + 

Fortress, and palace, and temple, and tower, + 

Filling the world with the proof of his power. + 

Over the dust that awaits him, man, + 

Building the walls that his pride doth plan, + 

Dreams they will stand in the light of the sun + 

Bearing his name till Time is done. + 

The monuments of mortals + 

Are as the glory of the grass; + 

Through Time’s dim portals + 

A voiceless, viewless wind doth pass, + 

The blossoms fall before it in a day, + 

The forest monarchs year by year decay, + 

And man’s great buildings slowly fade away. + 

One after one, + 

They pay to that dumb breath + 

The tribute of their death, + 

And are undone. + 

The towers incline to dust, + 

The massive girders rust, + 

The domes dissolve in air, + 

The pillars that upbear + 

The lofty arches crumble, stone by stone, + 

While man the builder looks about him in despair, + 

For all his works of pride and power are overthrown. + 

A Voice came from the sky: + 

“Set thy desires more high. + 

Thy buildings fade away + 

Because thou buildest clay. + 

Now make the fabric sure + 

With stones that will endure! + 

Hewn from the spiritual rock, + 

The immortal towers of the soul + 

At Death’s dissolving touch shall mock, + 

And stand secure while æons roll.” + 

Well did the wise in heart rejoice + 

To hear the summons of that Voice, + 

And patiently begin + 

The builder’s work within, + 

Houses not made with hands, + 

Nor founded on the sands. + 

And thou, Reverèd Mother, at whose call + 

We come to keep thy joyous festival, + 

And celebrate thy labours on the walls of Truth + 

Through sevenscore years and ten of thine eternal youth⁠— + 

A master builder thou, + 

And on thy shining brow, + 

Like Cybele, in fadeless light dost wear + 

A diadem of turrets strong and fair. + 

I see thee standing in a lonely land, + 

But late and hardly won from solitude, + 

Unpopulous and rude⁠— + 

On that far western shore I see thee stand, + 

Like some young goddess from a brighter strand, + 

While in thine eyes a radiant thought is born, + 

Enkindling all thy beauty like the morn. + 

Sea-like the forest rolled, in waves of green, + 

And few the lights that glimmered, leagues between. + 

High in the north, for fourscore years alone + 

Fair Harvard’s earliest beacon-tower had shone + 

When Yale was lighted, and an answering ray + 

Flashed from the meadows by New Haven Bay. + 

But deeper spread the forest, and more dark, + 

Where first Neshaminy received the spark + 

Of sacred learning to a woodland camp, + 

And Old Log College glowed with Tennant’s lamp. + 

Thine, Alma Mater, was the larger sight, + 

That saw the future of that trembling light, + 

And thine the courage, thine the stronger will, + 

That built its loftier home on Princeton Hill. + 

“New light!” men cried, and murmured that it came + 

From an unsanctioned source with lawless flame; + 

It shone too free, for still the church and school + 

Must only shine according to their rule. + 

But Princeton answered, in her nobler mood, + 

“God made the light, and all the light is good. + 

There is no war between the old and new; + 

The conflict lies between the false and true. + 

The stars, that high in heaven their courses run, + 

In glory differ, but their light is one. + 

The beacons, gleaming o’er the sea of life, + 

Are rivals but in radiance, not in strife. + 

Shine on, ye sister-towers, across the night! + 

I too will build a lasting house of light.” + 

Brave was that word of faith and bravely was it kept: + 

With never-wearying zeal that faltered not, nor slept, + 

Our Alma Mater toiled, and while she firmly laid + 

The deep foundation-walls, at all her toil she prayed. + 

And men who loved the truth because it made them free, + 

And clearly saw the twofold Word of God agree, + 

Reading from Nature’s book and from the Bible’s page + 

By the same inward ray that grows from age to age, + 

Were built like living stones that beacon to uplift, + 

And drawing light from heaven gave to the world the gift. + 

Nor ever, while they searched the secrets of the earth, + 

Or traced the stream of life through mystery to its birth, + 

Nor ever, while they taught the lightning-flash to bear + 

The messages of man in silence through the air, + 

Fell from their home of light one false, perfidious ray + 

To blind the trusting heart, or lead the life astray. + 

But still, while knowledge grew more luminous and broad + 

It lit the path of faith and showed the way to God. + 

Yet not for peace alone + 

Labour the builders. + 

Work that in peace has grown + 

Swiftly is overthrown, + 

When in the darkening skies + 

Storm-clouds of wrath arise, + 

And through the cannon’s crash, + 

War’s deadly lightning-flash + 

Smites and bewilders. + 

Ramparts of strength must frown + 

Round every placid town + 

And city splendid; + 

All that our fathers wrought + 

With true prophetic thought, + 

Must be defended! + 

But who could raise protecting walls for thee, + 

Thou young, defenceless land of liberty? + 

Or who could build a fortress strong enough, + 

Or stretch a mighty bulwark long enough + 

To hold thy far-extended coast + 

Against the overweening host + 

That took the open path across the sea, + 

And like a tempest poured + 

Their desolating horde, + 

To quench thy dawning light in gloom of tyranny? + 

Yet not unguarded thou wert found + 

When on thy shore with sullen sound + 

The blaring trumpets of an unjust king + 

Proclaimed invasion. From the ground, + 

In freedom’s darkest hour, there seemed to spring + 

Unconquerable walls for her defence; + 

Not trembling, like those battlements of stone + 

That fell when Joshua’s horns were blown; + 

But firm and stark the living rampart rose, + 

To meet the onset of imperious foes + 

With a long line of brave, unyielding men. + 

This was thy fortress, well-defended land, + 

And on these walls, the patient, building hand + 

Of Princeton laboured with the force of ten. + 

Her sons were foremost in the furious fight; + 

Her sons were firmest to uphold the right + 

In council-chambers of the new-born State, + 

And prove that he who would be free must first be great + 

In heart, and high in thought, and strong + 

In purpose not to do or suffer wrong. + 

Such were the men, impregnable to fear, + 

Whose souls were framed and fashioned here; + 

And when war shook the land with threatening shock, + 

The men of Princeton stood like muniments of rock. + 

Nor has the breath of Time + 

Dissolved that proud array + 

Of never-broken strength: + 

For though the rocks decay, + 

And all the iron bands + 

Of earthly strongholds are unloosed at length, + 

And buried deep in gray oblivion’s sands; + 

The work that heroes’ hands + 

Wrought in the light of freedom’s natal day + 

Shall never fade away, + 

But lifts itself, sublime + 

Into a lucid sphere, + 

For ever calm and clear, + 

Preserving in the memory of the fathers’ deed, + 

A never-failing fortress for their children’s need. + 

There we confirm our hearts to-day, and read + 

On many a stone the signature of fame, + 

The builder’s mark, our Alma Mater’s name. + 

Bear with us then a moment, while we turn + 

From all the present splendours of this place⁠— + 

The lofty towers that like a dream have grown + 

Where once old Nassau Hall stood all alone⁠— + 

Back to that ancient time, with hearts that burn + 

In filial gratitude, to trace + 

The glory of our mother’s best degree, + 

In that “high son of Liberty,” + 

Who like a granite block, + 

Riven from Scotland’s rock, + 

Stood loyal here to keep Columbia free. + 

Born far away beyond the ocean’s tide, + 

He found his fatherland upon this side; + 

And every drop of ardent blood that ran + 

Through his great heart, was true American. + 

He held no fealty to a distant throne, + 

But made his new-found country’s cause his own. + 

In peril and distress, + 

In toil and weariness, + 

When darkness overcast her + 

With shadows of disaster, + 

And voices of confusion + 

Proclaimed her hope delusion, + 

Robed in his preacher’s gown, + 

He dared the danger down; + 

Like some old prophet chanting an inspired rune + 

In freedom’s councils rang the voice of Witherspoon. + 

And thou, my country, write it on thy heart: + 

Thy sons are they who nobly take thy part; + 

Who dedicates his manhood at thy shrine, + 

Wherever born, is born a son of thine. + 

Foreign in name, but not in soul, they come + 

To find in thee their long desired home; + 

Lovers of liberty and haters of disorder, + 

They shall be built in strength along thy border. + 

Dream not thy future foes + 

Will all be foreign-born! + 

Turn thy clear look of scorn + 

Upon thy children who oppose + 

Their passions wild and policies of shame + 

To wreck the righteous splendour of thy name. + 

Untaught and overconfident they rise, + 

With folly on their lips, and envy in their eyes: + 

Strong to destroy, but powerless to create, + 

And ignorant of all that made our fathers great, + 

Their hands would take away thy golden crown, + 

And shake the pillars of thy freedom down + 

In Anarchy’s ocean, dark and desolate. + 

O should that storm descend, + 

What fortress shall defend + 

The land our fathers wrought for, + 

The liberties they fought for? + 

What bulwark shall secure + 

Her shrines of law, and keep her founts of justice pure? + 

Then, ah then, + 

As in the olden days, + 

The builders must upraise + 

A rampart of indomitable men. + 

And once again, + 

Dear Mother, if thy heart and hand be true, + 

There will be building work for thee to do; + 

Yea, more than once again, + 

Thou shalt win lasting praise, + 

And never-dying honour shall be thine, + 

For setting many stones in that illustrious line, + 

To stand unshaken in the swirling strife, + 

And guard their country’s honour as her life. + 

Softly, my harp, and let me lay the touch + 

Of silence on these rudely clanging strings; + 

For he who sings + 

Even of noble conflicts overmuch, + 

Loses the inward sense of better things; + 

And he who makes a boast + 

Of knowledge, darkens that which counts the most⁠— + 

The insight of a wise humility + 

That reverently adores what none can see. + 

The glory of our life below + 

Comes not from what we do, or what we know, + 

But dwells forevermore in what we are. + 

There is an architecture grander far + 

Than all the fortresses of war, + 

More inextinguishably bright + 

Than learning’s lonely towers of light. + 

Framing its walls of faith and hope and love + 

In souls of men, it lifts above + 

The frailty of our earthly home + 

An everlasting dome; + 

The sanctuary of the human host, + 

The living temple of the Holy Ghost. + 

If music led the builders long ago, + 

When Arthur planned the halls of Camelot, + 

And made the royal city grow, + 

Fair as a flower in that forsaken spot; + 

What sweeter music shall we bring, + 

To weave a harmony divine + 

Of prayer and holy thought + 

Into the labours of this loftier shrine, + 

This consecrated hill, + 

Where through so many a year + 

Our Alma Mater’s hand hath wrought, + 

With toil serene and still, + 

And heavenly hope, to rear + 

Eternal dwellings for the Only King? + 

Here let no martial trumpets blow, + 

Nor instruments of pride proclaim + 

The loud exultant notes of fame! + 

But let the chords be clear and low, + 

And let the anthem deeper grow, + 

And let it move more solemnly and slow; + 

For only such an ode + 

Can seal the harmony + 

Of that deep masonry + 

Wherein the soul of man is framed for God’s abode. + 

O Thou whose boundless love bestows + 

The joy of earth, the hope of Heaven, + 

And whose unchartered mercy flows + 

O’er all the blessings Thou hast given; + 

Thou by whose light alone we see; + 

And by whose truth our souls set free + 

Are made imperishably strong; + 

Hear Thou the solemn music of our song. + 

Grant us the knowledge that we need + 

To solve the questions of the mind, + 

And light our candle while we read, + 

To keep our hearts from going blind; + 

Enlarge our vision to behold + 

The wonders Thou hast wrought of old; + 

Reveal thyself in every law, + 

And gild the towers of truth with holy awe. + 

Be Thou our strength if war’s wild gust + 

Shall rage around us, loud and fierce; + 

Confirm our souls and let our trust + 

Be like a shield that none can pierce; + 

Renew the courage that prevails, + 

The steady faith that never fails, + 

And make us stand in every fight + 

Firm as a fortress to defend the right. + 

O God, control us as Thou wilt, + 

And guide the labour of our hand; + 

Let all our work be surely built + 

As Thou, the architect, hast planned; + 

But whatso’er thy power shall make + 

Of these frail lives, do not forsake + 

Thy dwelling: let thy presence rest + 

For ever in the temple of our breast. + 