Poem for Tuesday and Reunion Nostalgia

The Old Astronomer to His Pupil
By Sarah Williams

Reach me down my Tycho Brahe, I would know him when we meet,
When I share my later science, sitting humbly at his feet;
He may know the law of all things, yet be ignorant of how
We are working to completion, working on from then to now.

Pray remember that I leave you all my theory complete,
Lacking only certain data for your adding, as is meet,
And remember men will scorn it, 'tis original and true,
And the obliquy of newness may fall bitterly on you.

But, my pupil, as my pupil you have learned the worth of scorn,
You have laughed with me at pity, we have joyed to be forlorn,
What for us are all distractions of men's fellowship and smiles;
What for us the Goddess Pleasure with her meretricious smiles.

You may tell that German College that their honor comes too late,
But they must not waste repentance on the grizzly savant's fate.
Though my soul may set in darkness, it will rise in perfect light;
I have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night.

--------

I was out so much of the past three days that Monday was entirely a work and chore catch-up day, so I have nothing exciting to report from my own life and must content myself with noting that Minnesota has legalized same-sex marriage, meaning that nearly a quarter of US states have done so. I am thrilled that the Mormon Church seems to have noticed that it only galvanizes gay marriage supporters when it gives money to the support of bigotry nationwide, since that source of anti-equality funding has greatly diminished.

Otherwise my day involved seeing the two baby bunnies in our neighborhood (there are probably more, but these have been in consistent places) and having great vegetarian stir-fry made by Paul. Warehouse 13 did a hilarious noir parody (Pete, trapped in a book: "See, this is why I don't read!"), then J.J. Abrams showed up on The Daily Show and convinced me that I will dislike his Star Wars just as much as I dislike his Star Trek. But look, we can get our cats' names written in cat font. Here are some more photos from Alumni Weekend at Penn:


The Benjamin Franklin bench. (I love the bird reading along with him.)


Here is the more famous statue of Penn's founder in front of College Hall, which is decorated for Alumni Weekend.


Hands holding a camera on the Charles Addams Fine Arts gate.


The Penn Band plays "Drink a Highball" after the picnic.


Covenant by Alexander Liberman, erected in 1975 in the Superblock. This sculpture is most often referred to as The Dueling Tampons.


Students play sports in the field between the Superblock and 40th Street.


This is where The Daily Pennsylvanian photos are edited now. When I was a student there was a darkroom and a Velox processor.


University President Amy Gutmann's house. (When I was a student it was University President Sheldon Hackney's house.)