Sagittulae, Random Verses | Page 7

no amount of
plucking could his Student fair dismay.
MORAL.
Faint heart ne'er won fair lady, if in love you would
have luck,
In wooing, as in warfare, trust in nothing else than pluck.
(1871).
"NUNC TE BACCHE CANAM."
'Tis done! Henceforth nor joy nor woe
Can make or mar my fate;
I
gaze around, above, below,
And all is desolate.
Go, bid the
shattered pine to bloom;
The mourner to be merry;
But bid no ray
to cheer the tomb
In which my hopes I bury!
I never thought the world was fair;
That 'Truth must reign victorious';

I knew that Honesty was rare;
Wealth only meritorious.
I knew
that Women might deceive,
And sometimes cared for money;
That
Lovers who in Love believe
Find gall as well as honey.
I knew that "wondrous Classic lore"
Meant something most pedantic;

That Mathematics were a bore,
And Morals un-romantic.
I knew
my own beloved light-blue
Might much improve their rowing:
In
fact, I knew a thing or two
Decidedly worth knowing.
But thou!--Fool, fool, I thought that thou
At least wert something
glorious;
I saw thy polished ivory brow,
And could not feel
censorious.
I thought I saw thee smile--but that
Was all imagination;


Upon the garden seat I sat,
And gazed in adoration.
I plucked a newly-budding rose,
Our lips then met together;
We
spoke not--but a lover knows
How lips two lives can tether.
We
parted! I believed thee true;
I asked for no love-token;
But now thy
form no more I view--
My Pipe, my Pipe, thou'rt broken!
Broken!--and when the Sun's warm rays
Illumine hill and heather,
I
think of all the pleasant days
We might have had together.
When
Lucifer's phosphoric beam
Shines e'er the Lake's dim water,
O then,
my Beautiful, I dream
Of thee, the salt sea's daughter.
O why did Death thy beauty snatch
And leave me lone and blighted,

Before the Hymeneal match
Our young loves had united?
I knew
thou wert not made of clay,
I loved thee with devotion,
Soft
emanation of the spray!
Bright, foam-born child of Ocean!
One night I saw an unknown star,
Methought it gently nodded;
I
saw, or seemed to see, afar
Thy spirit disembodied.
Cleansed from
the stain of smoke and oil,
My tears it bade me wipe,
And there,
relieved from earthly toil,
I saw my Meerschaum pipe.
Men offer me the noisome weed;
But nought can calm my sorrow;

Nor joy nor misery I heed;
I care not for the morrow.
Pipeless and
friendless, tempest-tost
I fade, I faint, I languish;
He only who has
loved and lost
Can measure all my anguish.
A ROMANCE IN REAL (ACADEMIC) LIFE.
By the waters of Cam, as the shades were descending,
A Fellow sat
moaning his desolate lot;
From his sad eyes were flowing salt rivulets,
blending

Their tide with the river which heeded them not--
"O! why did I leave,"--thus he wearily muttered--
"The silent repose,
and the shade of my books,
Where the voice of a woman no sound

ever uttered,
And I ne'er felt the magic of feminine looks?
"Then I rose when the east with Aurora was ruddy;
Took a plunge in
my Pliny; collated a play;
No breakfast I ate, for I found in each study

A collation which lasted me all through the day.
"I know not what temptress first came to my garden
Of Eden, and
lured me stern wisdom to leave;
But I rather believe that a sweet
'Dolly Varden'
Came into my rooms on a soft summer eve.
"From that hour to this, dresses silken and satin
Seem to rustle around
me, like wings in a dream;
And eyes of bright blue, as I lecture in
Latin,
Fill my head with ideas quite remote from my theme.
"My life was once lonely, and almost ascetic;
But now, if I venture to
walk in the street,
With her books in her hand, some fair Peripatetic

Is sure to address me with whisperings sweet.
"O, dear DR. OXYTONE, tell me the meaning
Of this terrible phrase,
which I cannot make out;
And what is the Latin for "reaping" and
"gleaning?"
Is "podagra" the Greek, or the Latin for "gout?"
"'And what do you mean by "paroemiac bases?"
Did the ladies in
Athens wear heels very high?
Do give me the rules for Greek accents,
and Crasis?
Did CORNELIA drive out to dine in a fly?
"'When were bonnets first worn? was the toga becoming?
Were
woman's rights duly respected in Rome?
What tune was that horrible
Emperor strumming,
When all was on fire--was it Home, Sweet
Home?"
"Such questions as these (sweetest questions!) assail me, When I walk
on our Trumpington-Road-Rotten-Row;
The voice of the charmer
ne'er ceases to hail me
(Is it wisely she charmeth?) wherever I go.

"Locked up in my rooms, I sigh wearily 'ohe!'
But cards, notes, and
letters pour in by each post;
From PHYLLIS, EUPHROSYNE,
PHIDYLE, CHLOE,
AMARYLLIS and JANE, and a numberless
host.
"And now, I must take either poison or blue-pill,
For things cannot
last very long as they are."
He ceased, as the exquisite form of a pupil

Dawned upon him, serene as a beautiful star.
Much of syntax and "accidence moving" our Fellow
Discoursed as
they sat by the murmuring stream,
Till, as young Desdemona_ was
charmed by _Othello,
She listened, as one who is dreaming a dream.

Now