...once regarded as an inspiring expression of idealism. It is impossible to suppress a snicker at the "youth who bore, 'mid snow and ice, a banner with the strange device, Excelsior!" and who pressed upward to the Alpine heights as the shades of night were falling fast, not heeding...

...Extravaganza was the latest craze in theater. First, Barnet considered the possibilities in Longfellow's poem "Excelsior." The shades of night were falling fast, As through an Alpine village past A youth, who bore mid snow and ice Excelsior! He could combine "Excelsior" with the William Tell...

...as "higher." FIGURE 6: Illustration for " Excelsior" from the 1 846 edition of the collected poems. The shades of night were falling fast, As through...youth, who bore, 'mid snow and ice, A banner with a strange device, Excelsior! The setting recalls his Alpine summer with the Appletons; the youth's...

...famous by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's 1842 poem "Excelsior," which likely inspired the ballet title: The shades of night were falling fast, As through...His brow was sad; his eye beneath, Flashed like a falchion from its sheath, Gather's Literary Choreography And like a silver clarion rung The accents...

...holds fast its device, and a voice from the air proclaims the progress of the soul in a higher sphere. The shades of night were falling fast, As through an Alpine village pass'd A youth, who bore, mid snow and ice, A banner with this strange device — EXCELSIOR ! His brow...