She hears me not! with heart as hard as
lead,
She hurls a Rhombus at my luckless head.
Lo, where her myrmidons, a wrangling crew,
With howls and yells rise darkling to
the view.
There Algebra, a maiden old and pale,
Drinks “double x,”
enough to drown a whale.
There Euclid, ’mid a troop of “Riders”
passes,
Riding a Rhomboid o’er the Bridge
of Asses;
And shouts to Newton, who seems rather
deaf,
I’ve crossed the Bridge in safety
Q.E.F.
There black Mechanics, innocent of soap,
Lift the long lever, pull the pulley’s
rope,
Coil the coy cylinder, explain the fear
Which makes the nurse lean slightly to
her rear;
Else, equilibrium lost, to earth she’ll
fall,
Down will come child, nurse, crinoline
and all!
But why describe the rest? a motley crew,
Of every figure, magnitude, and hue:
Now circles they describe; now form in
square;
Now cut ellipses in the ambient air:
Then in my ear with one accord they bellow,
“Fly wretch! thou ne’er shalt
be a Johnian Fellow!”
Must I then bid a long farewell to “John’s,”
Its stately courts, its wisdom-wooing
Dons,
Its antique towers, its labyrinthine maze,
Its nights of study, and its pleasant
days?
O learned Synod, whose decree I wait,
Whose just decision makes, or mars my
fate;
If in your gardens I have loved to roam,
And found within your courts a second
home;
If I have loved the elm trees’ quivering
shade,
Since on your banks my freshman limbs
I laid;
If rustling reeds make music unto me
More soft, more sweet than mortal melody;
If I have loved to “urge the flying
ball”
Against your Racquet Court’s re-echoing
wall;
If, for the honour of the Johnian red,
I’ve gladly spurned the matutinal
bed,
And though at rowing, woe is me! no dab,
I’ve rowed my best, and seldom caught
a crab;
If classic Camus flow to me more dear
Than yellow Tiber, or Ilissus clear;
If fairer seem to me that fragrant stream
Than Cupid’s kiss, or Poet’s
pictured dream;
If I have loved to linger o’er the
page
Of Roman Bard, and Academian sage;
If all your grave pursuits, your pastimes
gay,
Have been my care by night, my joy by
day;
Still let me roam, unworthy tho’
I be,
By Cam’s slow stream, beneath the
old elm tree;
Still let me lie in Alma Mater’s
arms,
Far from the wild world’s troubles
and alarms:
Hear me, nor in stern wrath my prayer
repel! oh
Let, let me live to be a Johnian Fellow!
(1865).
THE LADY MARGARET 5TH BOAT,
May, 1863.
1. BOYCOTT, W. 5. PALEY, G. A.
2. FERGUSON, R. S. 6. GORST, P. F.
3. BOWLING, E. W. 7. SECKER, J. H.
4. SMITH, JASON. 8. FISHER, J.
Steerer—BUSHELL, W. D.