POETRY.
OXFORD TO LONDON. 0 FRIEND, who labouring for the State, With sittings early, sittings late, Dost gnaw thy soul with righteous anger At party violence, party hate: To see our Senate's old renown 'Mid faction's darkening surges drown, And many a name of purer splendour Setting, and like a star go down To hear the howl, the hiss, the cry, The blatant taunt, the bandied lie, Where, saved through laws that guarded order, The friends of anarchy law defy : To long—and scarce to deem it sin— To see some Cromwell enter in, And, England's mandate stern behind him, For freedom's honour end discord's din : Then come and quit the heated hall, The strife, the mock-division's call, Come, and amid old friends at Oxford, In peace and beauty, forget it all !
Come, and where breaks a softer ray On walls with centuries sere and grey, 'Mid memories old as Saxon Alfred Refresh your heart with the heart of May !
In meads where conch the slumberous kine With kingcup, and with cowslip fine, By many a College ivy-mantled, Trellised with rose and eglantine : 'Or lawns like emerald velvet laid 'Mid whispering Cloisters' long arcade; And walks by student-dreamer trodden, Leafy and cool in their elm-trees' shade : 4Dr, sweeter still, arched boughs between, To trace the twilight-glimmering scene, The ghost-like city, steeple-studded, Slumbering grey in a mist of green: Or listen while the tbrostle sings Night's requiem, where still adding rings Millennial oaks bemock the aloe That once a century skyward springs : Or take the oar, and down the stream .Silently floating like a dream, People the wave with phantom races, And hear the shout for the victor-team : Thoughts of a past, a happier time, When selfish aim seemed public crime, And feel once more the pulses quicken With generous heat of a genial prime.
Then back returning, seek once more The Babel city, the wordy war; Perchance a drooping cause to hearten, Perchance its wavering ranks restore. For still, though doubtful seem the fray, And long the struggle and hard the way, Yet lawless passion is self-destroying, And coolness, courage, shall win the day.
A. G. B.
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