THE MISSION REMAINS

   The Old Guard’s gone, now passed into the shade
   with Nina, Ada, Charlie, Wilbur and
   then Marion and Phil—our Hit Parade
   of Departmental characters, a band
   of colorful professors from the days
   when dittographs and chalkboards were the mode
   along with jackets, bow-ties, buns and stays,
   when homework meant to memorize an ode.
   A younger set has now assumed command
   more women and much more technology;
   New Critics are passé and texts are scanned
   by copiers if not prosodically.
        What matters, though, is that we still succeed
        in leading them to love to write and read.

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