University of Pennsylvania Poem

*Penn*

“Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.”
— Benjamin Franklin

For over 270 years,
Penn has left its mark.

***

Laws without morals are in vain.
The pursuit of happiness begins with the freedom to earn it.
Our country’s constitutional laws ensure that all the deserving go to the Penn
where the institution’s stripes are worn by the stars who paved their own way.
Time to Shine.
Making History.
Injecting college with its first medical school, and like our forefathers in Independence Hall:
We endorsed the first union.
Where students meet in mergers of the CEOs and entrepreneurs that the great business minds of 1881 envisioned in their meeting room that has grown into the classrooms of Wharton.
Any successful businessman will tell you, even more than risk and profit,
It is belief that pays.
And since 1881, Penn’s belief in the next generation has led to the most stable business program of any university for every subsequent class to inherit. So that in four years when Quakers go out of Business,
They are ready for a Boom
that fires up the sky like the bombs of July.

Their development began here in America’s birthplace…

Where the locals reinvent the pub crawl with the Philly Grub Crawl,
Then go running up The Steps like Balboa—pre-brawl,
To discover the stature of Philadelphia’s art,
It is the UPenn canvas many flights got their start,
The first round was at the crack of the Bell,
It sounded with freedom to give ambition the gale
To turn corners in nursing and engineering,
Programs of music that appeal:
So they deserve another hearing.
We have The Penn Band, The Mask & Wig, and Glee Club,
With the oldest literary society built on brotherly love,
Together we walked through these trees in the harshest degrees,
As young locusts who’re now set to take leads,
We have moved up on these runs through Penn Town,
We rest developed & prepared,
Gonna Fly Now.

From Alma Mater Vol. 2: The Northeast
You can read the full four-volume Alma Mater collection here.
Copyright © 2015 Clyde Aidoo