Beta Pi Lambda Chapter ::: Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.

HOUSE OF ALPHA

-Brother Sidney P. Brown

Goodwill is the monarch of this house, men
Unacquainted, enter, shake hands, exchange
Greetings and depart friends. Cordiality exist
Among all who abide within. I am the eminent
Expression of friendship. Character and
Temperament change under my dominant power.
Lives once touched by me become tuned and are
Thereafter amiable, kindly, fraternal.

I inspire the musician to play noble sentiments and
Assist the chemist to convert ungenerous
Personalities into individuals of great worth.
I destroy ignoble impulses. I constantly invoke
Principles which make for common brotherhood
And the echo resounds in all communities and
Princely men are thereby recognized. Education,
Health, music, encouragement, sympathy, laughter,
All these are species of interest given of self
Invested capital.

Tired moments find me a delightful treat, hours of
Sorrow, a shrine of understanding, at all times I am
Faithful to the creed of companionship, to a few,
I Am the castle of dreams, ambitious, successful,
Hopeful dreams. To many, I am the poetic place
Where human feeling is rhymed to celestial
Motives; to the great majority, I am the treasury of
Good fellowship.

In fact, I am the college of friendship; the
University of brotherly love; the school for the
Better making of men.

I AM ALPHA PHI ALPHA!!!

To Be An Alpha Man

- Fred H. Woodruff

To be an Alphaman means more than just to wear a pin,
It requires intrinsic qualities that are developed deep within,
It calls for lasting Brotherhood, a word sometimes used in vain,
It means an honest devotion, not anticipation of personal gain.

Fraternity speaks of brotherly love, that's something to achieve,
It's more than a grip of hands, it's and ideal to conceive.
You're proud to be an Alpha, and share her praises won,
before you inflate yourself with pride, ask yourself honestly,
how much work have you done?

To realize the wealth of personal satisfaction, from knowing you've given your all,
To have helped her cause unfalteringly, when you rally to her call.
To combine all these qualities, and root them deep within,
The product would be an Alphaman, deserving of his pin.

So take an honest inventory of your character within,
and for every virtue you find missing, try to weave it in.
For a man without these virtues isn't worth a grain of sand.
It's plain to see, it's more than just a pin,
that makes an Alphaman!!!

There Goes An Alpha Man

- Peter Clarke

There goes a man of high impulse, of princely mien and grace.
There goes a man of humble faith, a credit to his race.
There goes a man of conscious vast, with the will to reach his goal.
There goes a man with lordly rank of heroes stock and soul.
There goes a man of noble cast whom hardship cannot break.
There goes a man in merit clad, whom duty won't forsake.
There goes a man of culture verse, who holds a sportsman's creed.
There goes a man too vigilant to bow to lust or greed.
There goes a man whose life is spent in service, not in scorn.
There goes a man whose majesty shines like a maytime morn.
There goes a man who is a friend to love and duty truth.
There goes a man to help uplift the lives of wholesome youth.
There goes a man with industry and faith at his command.
There goes the best man in or out for he's an Alpha Man!!!

IF

- Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about don’t deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk to wise;
If you can dream – and not make dreams your master,
If you can think – and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same,
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build ‘em up with worn out tools;
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so bold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on”;
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings – nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And – which is more – you’ll be a Man, my son!

Invictus

- William E. Henley

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

Test of a Man

The test of a man is the fight that he makes;
The grit that he daily shows,
The way that he stands upon his feet,
and takes life's numerous bumps and blows.
A coward can smile when there's naught to fear,
And nothing his progress bars.
But it takes a man to stand and cheer
while the other fellow stars.
It isn't the victory after all,
But the fight that a Brother makes.
A man, when driven against the wall still stands erect
and takes the blows of fate with his head held high,
bleeding, bruised and pale,
Is the man who will win and fate defied,
For he isn't afraid to fail.

Don't Quit

When things go wrong as they sometimes will
when the road you're trudging seems all uphill
when the funds are low and debts are high
and you want to smile but have to sigh
when care is pressing you down a bit
rest if you must but don't you quit

Life is strange with it's twists and turns
as everyone of us sometimes learns
and many a failure turns about
when he might have won had he stuck it out
don't give up though the pace seems slow
you may succeed with another blow

Success is failure turned inside out
the silver tint in the clouds of doubt
and you can never tell how close you are
it may be near when it seems so far
so stick to the fight when your hardest hit
it's when things seem worse that you must not quit