"Dear Old Guilford" Song

While perusing old yearbooks I noticed a song that was sung often in the early 1900s, called simply, "Dear Old Guilford." The song seems to have been "given" to the school as one of its class gifts by the seniors of 1911.  I have no idea what the tune is, nor when it vanished from tradition.

Dear Old Guilford

In the North State, at its center,

Stands a college old and fine;

We all love it, 'tis our Guilford

'Round it, ivy doth entwine.

(chorus)  Dear old Guilford, dear old Guilford,

How we love thee more each year;

When we're gone from thee forever,

Still thy name we will revere.

At the first, poor timid Freshmen,

How we longed at ease to be;

How we toiled, how we toiled o'er,

Physics and Geometry.

Dear old Guilford, dear old Guilford,

How we love thee more each year;

When we're gone from thee forever,

Still thy name we will revere.

But we wiser grew as Soph'mores.

Said such digging did not pay;

And the way we bluffed our teachers,

No one ever knew but they.

(chorus)

Onward we advanced as Juniors,

Cast aside our childish ways;

Found that honest toil and pleasure,

Best could fill our college days.

(chorus)

Then, with Senior years advancing,

Alma Mater ope's the door;

To larger tasks and broader visions,

Which the future has in store.

(chorus)

Then let all who love our college,

Love her heart, and soul and mind;

Seniors, Juniors, Sophomores, Freshmen,

Sing with voices here combined.

(chorus)

(END)