WITH song elate we celebrate The struggling Student wight, Who seeketh still to pack his pate With treasures erudite; Who keepeth guard and watch and ward O'er every hour of day, Nor less to slight the hours of night, He watchful is alway. Though poor in pence, a wealth of sense He storeth in excess -- With poverty in opulence, His needs wax never less. His goods are few, -- a shelf or two Of classics, and a chair -- A banjo -- with a bird's-eye view Of back-lots everywhere. In midnight gloom, shut in his room, His vigils he protracts, E'en to the morning's hectic bloom, Accumulating facts: And yet, despite or wrong or right, He nurtureth a ban, -- He hath the stanchless appetite Of any hired man. On Jason's fleece and storied Greece He feeds his hungry mind; Then stuffs himself like a valise With "eats" of any kind: With kings he feigns he feasts, and drains The wines of ages gone -- Then husks a herring's cold remains And turns the hydrant on. In Trojan mail he fronts the gale Of ancient battle-rout, When, 'las the hour! his pipe must fail, And his last 'snipe" smush out -- Nor pauses he, unless it be To quote some cryptic scroll And poise a sardine pensively O'er his immortal soul. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SONNET TO MRS. REYNOLD'S CAT by JOHN KEATS A DREAM WITHIN A DREAM by EDGAR ALLAN POE THE POET'S SPEAR by ARCHILOCHUS LOVE IN THE DAWN by WILLIAM ROSE BENET STEEL OR GOLD?; THE QUESTION by LOUISA SARAH BEVINGTON NATALIA'S RESURRECTION: 6 by WILFRID SCAWEN BLUNT THE BURIAL OF LOVE by WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT MASQUE AT THE MARRIAGE OF THE EARL OF SOMERSET: MASQUERS SECOND DANCE by THOMAS CAMPION |