Bright College Years

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Bright College Years is one of the traditional songs of Yale University. It was written to the tune of Die Wacht am Rhein by Henry Durand in 1881. Durand was a member of the Yale Class of 1881 and figured in the founding of Wolf's Head Society.

During World War I the song was nearly banned for its German heritage, and Yale men stationed in Paris sang it to the tune of La Marseillaise.[1]

Contents

[edit] Lyrics

Bright College years, with pleasure rife,
The shortest, gladdest years of life;
How swiftly are ye gliding by!
Oh, why doth time so quickly fly?
The seasons come, the seasons go,
The earth is green or white with snow,
But time and change shall naught avail
To break the friendships formed at Yale.


In after years, should troubles rise
To cloud the blue of sunny skies,
How bright will seem, through mem'ry's haze
Those happy, golden, bygone days!
Oh, let us strive that ever we
May let these words our watch-cry be,
Where'er upon life's sea we sail:
"For God, for Country and for Yale!"

[edit] In Popular Culture

  • Bright College Years: Inside the American Campus Today is a book by Anne Matthews published in 1997 describing modern day academia.
  • Bright College Years is a 1971 documentary filmed by Peter Rosen describing the reactions of people at Yale to President Nixon's bombing of Cambodia and the arrest of several Black Panther leaders in New Haven.
  • Bright Party Years is a parody of Bright College Years written and sung by the Party of the Right in the Yale Political Union.

[edit] Notes and References

  1. ^ Old Yale: The Birth, Near-Demise, and Comeback of "Bright College Years". Retrieved on 2007-12-29.

[edit] External Links