Poem for a 50th reunion of college graduating class

For several years I have been on a committee which is planning the 50th reunion of the class of 1961 at Willamette University. Yesterday an article in the New York Times quoted the concluding four lines of a poem that Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote for the 1875 50th reunion of his 1825 graduating class at Bowdoin College:

For age is opportunity no less
Than youth itself, though in another dress,
And as the evening twilight fades away
The sky is filled with stars, invisible by day.

The full (very long!) poem is available here.

It is a wonderful poem and very relevant to people approaching a 50th reunion, so I e-mailed it to all the members of the committee yesterday.