Sagittulae, Random Verses | Page 2

the rights of cap and gown?'
VIII.
'I, with two more to help me,
'Will face yon Graces Three;
'Will
guard the Holy Tripod,
'And the M.A. Degree.
'We know that by
obstruction
'Three may a thousand foil.
'Now who will stand on
either hand
'To guard our Trojan soil?'
IX.
Then Parvue Mariensis,
Of Bearded Jove the Priest,
Spake out 'of
Trojan warriors
'I am, perhaps, the least,
'Yet will I stand at thy
right hand.'
Cried Pottius--'I likewise
'At thy left side will stem the
tide
'Of myriad flashing eyes.
X.
Meanwhile the Ladies' Army,
Right glorious to behold,
Came clad
in silks and satins bright,
With seal-skins and with furs bedight,

And gems and rings of gold.
Four hundred warriors shouted
'Placet'
with fiendish glee,
As that fair host with fairy feet,
And smiles
unutterably sweet,
Came tripping each towards her seat,

Where
stood the dauntless Three.
XI.

The Three stood calm and silent,
And frowned upon their foes,
As a
great shout of laughter
From the four hundred rose:
And forth three
chiefs came spurring
Before their ladies gay,
They faced the Three,
they scowled and scoffed,
Their gowns they donned, their caps they
doffed,
Then sped them to the fray.
XII.
Generalis Post-Magister,
Lord of the Letter-bags;
And Dilkius
Radicalis,
Who ne'er in combat lags;
And Graecus Professorius,

Beloved of fair Sabrine,
From the grey Elms--beneath whose shade

A hospitable banquet laid,
Had heroes e'en of cowards made.--

Brought 'placets' thirty-nine.
XIII
Stout Varius hurled 'non placet'
At Post-Magister's head:
At the
mere glance of Pottius
Fierce Radicalis fled:
And Parvus
Mariensis--
So they who heard him tell--
Uttered but one false
quantity,
And Professorius fell!

XIV.
But fiercer still and fiercer
Fresh foemen sought the fray.
And
fainter still and fainter
Stout Varius stood at bay.
'O that this too,
too solid
Flesh would dissolve,' he sighed;
Yet still he stood
undaunted,
And still the foe defied.
XV.
Then Pollia Nunamensis,
A student sweetly fair,
Famed for her
smiles and dimples
Blue eyes and golden hair,
Of Cupid's arrows
seized a pair,

One in each eye she took:
Cupid's best bow with all her might
She
pulled--each arrow winged its flight,
And straightway reason, sense,
and sight
Stout Varius forsook.
XVI.
'He falls'--the Placets thundered,
And filled the yawning gap;
In
vain his trusty comrades
Avenge their chief's mishap--
His last great fight is done.
'They charge! Brave Pottius prostrate lies,

No Rider helps him to arise:
They charge! Fierce Mariensis dies.
The Bridge, the Bridge is won!
XVII.
In vain did Bencornutus
Flash lightnings from his beard;
In vain
Fabrorum Maximus
His massive form upreared;
And Lumbius
Revisorius--
Diviner potent he!--
And Peronatus robed in state,

And fine old Fossilis sedate,
All vainly stemmed the tide of fate--
Triumphed the Graces Three!
XVIII.
But when in future ages
Women have won their rights,
And sweet
girl-undergraduates
Read through the lamp-lit nights;
When some,
now unborn, Pollia
Her head with science crams;
When the girls
make Greek Iambics,
And the boys black-currant jams;
XIX.
When the goodman's shuttle merrily
Goes flashing through the loom,

And the good wife reads her Plato
In her own sequestered room;


With weeping and with laughter
Still shall the tale be told,
How
pretty Pollia won the Bridge
In the brave days of old.
(1881).
[1] The ancient name of Hitchin.
JULIA.
An Ode.
[NOTE.--The following imitation of Cowper's Boadicea was written in
1858; most of its predictions have since been fulfilled.]
When the Cambridge flower-show ended,
And the flowers and guests
were gone,
And the evening shades descended,
Roamed a man
forlorn alone.
Sage beside the River slow
Sat the Don renowned for lore
And in
accents soft and low
To the elms his love did pour.
"Julia, if my learned eyes
Gaze upon thy matchless face:
'Tis
because I feel there lies
Magic in thy lovely grace.
"I will marry! write that threat
In the ink I daily waste:
Marry--pay
each College debt--
College Ale no more will taste.
"Granta, far and wide renowned,
Frowns upon the married state;

Soon her pride shall kiss the ground
Hark! Reform is at the gate.
"Other Fellows shall arise,
Proud to own a husband's name:
Proud
to own their infants' cries--
Harmony the path to fame.
"Then the progeny that springs
From our ancient College walls,

Armed with trumpets, noisy things,
Shall astound us by their squalls.
"Sounds no wrangler yet has heard,
Our posterity shall fright:
E'en

'the Eagle,' [1] valiant bird,
Shall betake itself to flight."
Such the thoughts that through him whirl'd
Pensively reclining there:

Smiling, as his fingers curled
His divinely-glowing hair.
He, with all a lover's pride,
Felt his manly bosom glow,
Sought the
Bull, besought the Bride,
All she said was "No, Sir, No!"
Julia, pitiless as cold,
Lo the vengeance due from Heaven!
College
Living he doth hold;
Single bliss to thee is given.
[1] "The Eagle" is the well-known Magazine of St. John's College,
Cambridge.
CLIO FATIDICA.
[NOTE.--The following lines were written to celebrate the 'bump' by
which the Lady Margaret 1st Boat became "Head of the River" in 1871.
On the next evening Professor Selwyn delighted the eyes and the hearts
of all Johnians by sculling down the river to salute the Head of the
River. The title of psychroloutes [*] needs no explanation to those who
know the Selwyns, who are no less renowned as swimmers than as
oarsmen.]
"Tell me, Muse, what colour floateth round
the River's ancient head:
Is it white and black, or