Agnes Scott College: The Institute's Vision

Lyrics

[Intro]
Agnes.
Agnes Irvine Scott.
Do you hear your name?
In the red brick of the hall.
In the quiet of the Quad.
It was all for you.

[Verse 1]
Eighteen eighty-nine.
He bought the ten acres.
Colonel George Washington Scott.
Your husband.
He signed the charter from the legislature.
For the Decatur Female Seminary.
But it was your name he was writing, even then.
A promise made in quiet rooms.
A future he wanted to build,
because he was losing his.

[Chorus]
He said he wanted a standard of scholarship
Equal to the best colleges for young men.
He wanted an ornament to the town, a blessing to the country.
An honor to God.
But mostly, Agnes,
an honor to you.
A light of the south,
bearing your name.

[Verse 2]
September twenty-fourth, eighteen ninety.
Sixty-nine young women walked through the doors.
Fresh pine scent in Agnes Scott Hall.
The very year, you were gone.
Forty-two years old.
And the seminary became the institute.
Your memory sealed into the mortar,
a cornerstone more real than granite.
Rev. Gaines stood at the pulpit,
but it was your story he told.

[Chorus]
He said he wanted a standard of scholarship
Equal to the best colleges for young men.
He wanted an ornament to the town, a blessing to the country.
An honor to God.
But mostly, Agnes,
an honor to you.
A light of the south,
bearing your name.

[Bridge]
You never saw it.
Never walked this green grass.
Never saw the Lantern Parade,
one generation passing light to the next.
A flame carried in your name.
Does it reach you?
This echo of a vision,
made real, made lasting.
More than a memorial.
It’s a living thing.

[Outro]
Agnes.
Agnes Irvine Scott.
They still say your name here.
The students, the professors.
It whispers from the Romanesque arches.
It settles with the evening chill.
A blessing.
An honor.