Wolf's Head (secret Society) - Point of View

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.".