YE distant spires, ye antique towers, What means that voice of moaning? "That voice," the Tutors cry, "is ours, O'er food and fuel groaning. "With Greek and Latin we can store And cram the empty head, The stomach still with something more Substantial must be fed. "Once 'Kings and Montem' to obtain Our Eton bucks contended, Our Fatted Calves, sent home by train, Are highly now commended. "O, blissful days, when crown'd with bays, The Musæ Etonenses, Inspired by Keate, of butcher's meat Could laugh at the expenses. "For fuel though we spare at need A Virgil or a Horace, On books like worms we cannot feed, But else, what is there for us? "Thou, Gladstone, whose Homeric soul Was kindled by our Gradus, Full well know'st thou the price of coal, Why com'st thou not to aid us? "Trojan heads and helmets hacking Made blunt the swords of Greece; The egg-shells we are daily cracking Now twopence cost apiece. " 'Twould time employ of every boy The cost to calculate Of all we buy at avoirdupois, Or purchase at Troy weight. "Etona! flourish long may she! But ruin will await her, If starved should we and brosier'd be, By our own Alma Mater." | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...IT'S A QUEER TIME by ROBERT RANKE GRAVES ON READING 'VORTICIST POEM ON LOVE' by FRANKLIN PIERCE ADAMS OUT OF THE SHADOW by MARGARET FAIRLESS BARBER A MEMORY by HARRY RANDOLPH BLYTHE HONOUR'S MARTYR by EMILY JANE BRONTE |