Point of View
The Grey Friars mocked as "poppycock" the seemingly Masonic-inspired rituals and atmosphere associated with Skull and Bones. Early undergraduate members went as far as allowing fellow Yale undergraduates to handle the society's pin; however, undergraduates aspiring to society membership were admonished about their aspiration to the elect. Stephen Vincent Benet, future member of the Phelps Association, as an undergraduate wheel at the Yale Lit penned the following commentary on aspiration to the elect: "Do you want to be successful? Form a club!/Are your chances quite disstressful? Form a club!/Never mind the common friendships/That no politician has!/Seek the really righteous rounders/and the athletes of the class!/And you'll get your heart's desiring-/and the rest will get the raz!"
Disdain for "poppycock" has been exampled by The Pirates of Penzance prank, with the thespian pirate king persuaded to display the numbers 322 (part of the emblem of Skull and Bones) below a skull and crossbones at a local theatre,, Whit Griswold's deprecations of poppycock -- "Bonesy bullshit" and "Dink Stover crap" -- coloring undergraduate life, and the practice of newly- and recently-enfranchised wolves howling in late-April
W.H.S. maintained many traditions common among its peers, however. Paul Moore recalled the night before he first encountered combat in World War II: "I spent the evening on board ship being quizzed by...about what went on in Wolf's Head. He could not believe I would hold back such irrelevant secrets the night before I faced possible death.".
Read more about this topic: Wolf's Head (secret Society)
Famous quotes containing the words point of view, point of, point and/or view:
“Taking the child’s point of view demands good will, time, and effort on the part of parents. The child is the clear beneficiary. Parents who make the effort to understand their children’s point of view are likely to treat children fairly and in an age-appropriate manner.”
—David Elkind (20th century)
“What we call little things are merely the causes of great things; they are the beginning, the embryo, and it is the point of departure which, generally speaking, decides the whole future of an existence. One single black speck may be the beginning of a gangrene, of a storm, of a revolution.”
—Henri-Frédéric Amiel (1821–1881)
“In philosophical inquiry, the human spirit, imitating the movement of the stars, must follow a curve which brings it back to its point of departure. To conclude is to close a circle.”
—Charles Baudelaire (1821–1867)
“That author who draws a character, even though to common view incongruous in its parts, as the flying-squirrel, and, at different periods, as much at variance with itself as the caterpillar is with the butterfly into which it changes, may yet, in so doing, be not false but faithful to facts.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)