Illinois Verse/Senior Hobo Parade
Senior Hobo Parade
Shrill and loud above the beating of the drums,Syncopated,—jazz music urges the heterogeneous rabbleDown Burrill Avenue and back to the Auditorium Tattered and torn, Blackened and painted,On they come to make a ludicrous spectacleFor the Homecoming masses.
Dignified seniors have shed academic prideWith their customary conventional clothes.Weary Willies and Dusty Rhoades mixWith strenuous Wild Bills and competing clownsJaywalkers and awkward hay-seeds;—All stirred into one Highly colored, Shifting throng.Swerving and tumbling about with savage gleeOr infantile joy, they play their various pranksTo win the plaudits of the laughing crowds.
Final high carnival, Last dashing gestureTo end the careless gaiety of their college days,And enter upon the dignity of the senior year.