ON pinnacled St. Mary's Lingers the setting sun; Into the streets the blackguards Are skulking one by one: Butcher and Boots and Bargeman Lay pipe and pewter down; And with wild shout come tumbling out To join the Town and Gown. And now the undergraduates Come forth by twos and threes, From the broad tower of Trinity, From the green gate of Caius: The wily bargeman marks them, And swears to do his worst; To turn to impotence their strength, And their beauty to @3my first.@1 But before Corpus gateway @3My second@1 first arose, When Barnacles the Freshman Was pinned upon the nose: Pinned on the nose by Boxer, Who brought a hobnailed herd From Barnwell, where he kept a van, Being indeed a dogsmeat man, Vendor of terriers, blue or tan, And dealer in @3my third.@1 'Twere long to tell how Boxer Was "countered" on the cheek, And knocked into the middle Of the ensuing week: How Barnacles the Freshman Was asked his name and college; And how he did the fatal facts Reluctantly acknowledge. He called upon the Proctor Next day at half-past ten; Men whispered that the Freshman cut A different figure then: -- That the brass forsook his forehead, The iron fled his soul, As with blanched lip and visage wan Before the stony-hearted Don He kneeled upon @3my whole.@1 | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ON MY THIRTY-THIRD BIRTHDAY by GEORGE GORDON BYRON MARRIAGE A LA MODE: SONG by JOHN DRYDEN WAITING - BOTH by THOMAS HARDY HAUNTED HOUSES by HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW THE INCHCAPE ROCK by ROBERT SOUTHEY AN EVOCATION by AUGUSTE ANGELLIER A SONNET. ON THE PICTURE OF CAVALIER GUARINI PAINTED BY BORGIANNI by PHILIP AYRES |