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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


VACATIONAL by PHILIP GUEDALLA

First Line: GENTLEMEN LATELY RETURNED TO YOUR COLLEGES
Last Line: SWEET ARE THE USES OF OUR UNIVERSITY.
Subject(s): OXFORD UNIVERSITY;

GENTLEMEN lately returned to your Colleges,
There to repose from a vigorous Vac.,
Sadly imperfect the state of my knowledge is,
What are the pleasures on which you look back?

@3Was it Parisian, Meadows Elysian,
Foys that would soften the heart of a Frisian,
Moulin Roujollity, Rue de Rivolity,
Carrying on with young ladies of quality?@1

Was it Bavarian, frankly agrarian,
Far from the crowd as the Isthmus of Darien,
House with a pretty gate far from the City gate,
Hat with a feather and Lager unmitigate?

@3Or Caledonian, walking Serbonian
Bogs in pursuit of illusory cony, annoying
neurotic and elderly partridges
With a quite disproportionate outlay of cartridges?@1

Was it -- oh! finally, was it Tyrolean,
Standing on top of a view like Napoleon,
Mostly funicular, quite perpendicular,
Lots of new friends, if you aren't so particular?

@3Now you are back again where you can slack again,
Reading of novels like "When it was Black" again
Wearing of socks of a rainbow diversity:
Sweet are the uses of our University.@1



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