University of Pittsburgh Alma Mater - Lyrics

Lyrics

The lyrics below to the University of Pittsburgh Alma Mater are attributable to the 1916 edition of The Owl student yearbook. The song is to be sung con spirito (as a triumphant anthem, not as a dirge). Some printings of the Alma Mater do not repeat the first verse at the end of the song.

Alma Mater, wise and glorious,
Child of Light and Bride of Truth,
Over fate and foe victorious,
Dowered with eternal youth,
Crowned with love of son and daughter,
Thou shalt conquer as of yore,
Dear old Pittsburgh, Alma Mater,
God preserve Thee evermore!

First beyond the mountains founded,
Where the West-road opens free,
When twin rivers forest bounded,
Merge and journey toward the sea,
In the dawning of the nation
Ere the clouds of strife had cleared,
'Rose Thy rough-hewn habitation,
By our prophet fathers reared.

Close Thy mother-love embraces
All who gather at Thy knee,
Castes and classes, creeds and races,
Mother, are as one to Thee;
Thou who unto knowledge bore us,
In the good old days long gone,
Raise Thy Gold and Blue high o'er us,
Land and we will follow on.

Alma Mater, wise and glorious,
Child of Light and Bride of Truth,
Over fate and foe victorious
Dowered with eternal youth,
Crowned with love of son and daughter,
Thou shalt conquer as of yore,
Dear Old Pittsburgh, Alma Mater,
God preserve Thee evermore.

The lyrics of the second stanza refer to the geographical location of the university in Pittsburgh and that city's role in the early nation as the "Gateway to the West". "First beyond the mountains founded" refers to the fact that the University of Pittsburgh is the oldest continuously chartered institution of learning in the U.S., west of the Allegheny Mountains. The verse stating "twin rivers forest bounded, Merge and journey toward the sea" refers to the confluence of the Allegheny River from the northeast and Monongahela River from the southeast to form the Ohio River which eventually merges into the Mississippi River that runs in the Gulf of Mexico. The "dawning of the nation" refers to the cities establishment as a fort and trading post prior to the American Revolution and the founding of the school in 1787, just before the beginning of the Constitutional Convention, and to the "rough-hewn habitation" refers to the mostly log and wooden structures that made up the early city at this time, including the school's own origins in a log cabin.

In the third stanza, "All who gather at Thy knee, Castes and classes, creeds and races, Mother, are as one to Thee" references the long history of diversity in the university's student body as the first African-American student attended the school in 1829 and the first women in 1895. "Gold and Blue" refer to the school's colors, which were chosen sometime prior to the twentieth century when the university was known as the Western University of Pennsylvania.