p. 44A COLLEGE CAREER

p. 44

I

When one is young and eager, A bejant and a boy, Though his moustache be meagre, That cannot mar his joy When at the Competition He takes a fair position, And feels he has a mission, A talent to employ.

With pride he goes each morning Clad in a scarlet gown, A cap his head adorning  (Both bought of Mr. Brown); p. 45 He hears the harsh bell jangle, And enters the quadrangle, The classic tongues to mangle And make the ancients frown.

p. 45

He goes not forth at even, He burns the midnight oil, He feels that all his heaven Depends on ceaseless toil; Across his exercises A dream of many prizes Before his spirit rises, And makes his raw blood boil.

II

Though he be green as grass is, And fresh as new-mown hay Before the first year passes His verdure fades away. p. 46 His hopes now faintly glimmer, Grow dim and ever dimmer, And with a parting shimmer Melt into ‘common day.’

p. 46

He cares no more for Liddell Or Scott; and Smith, and White, And Lewis, Short, and Riddle Are ‘emptied of delight.’ Todhunter and Colenso (Alas, that friendships end so!) He curses in extenso Through morning, noon, and night.

No more with patient labour The midnight oil he burns, But unto some near neighbour His fair young face he turns, p. 47 To share the harmless tattle Which bejants love to prattle, As wise as infant’s rattle Or talk of coots and herns.

p. 47

At midnight round the city He carols wild and free Some sweet unmeaning ditty In many a changing key; And each succeeding verse is Commingled with the curses Of those whose sleep disperses Like sal volatile.

He shaves and takes his toddy Like any fourth year man, And clothes his growing body After another plan p. 48 Than that which once delighted When, in the days benighted, Like some wild thing excited About the fields he ran.

p. 48

III

A sweet life and an idle He lives from year to year, Unknowing bit or bridle  (There are no proctors here), Free as the flying swallow Which 

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