'T IS twenty years, and something more, Since, all athirst for useful knowledge, I took some draughts of classic lore, Drawn very mild, at ----rd College; Yet I remember all that one Could wish to hold in recollection; The boys, the joys, the noise, the fun; But not a single Conic Section. I recollect those harsh affairs, The morning bells that gave us panics; I recollect the formal prayers, That seemed like lessons in Mechanics; I recollect the drowsy way In which the students listened to them, As clearly, in my wig, to-day, As when, a boy, I slumbered through them. I recollect the tutors all As freshly now, if I may say so, As any chapter I recall In Homer or Ovidius Naso. I recollect, extremely well, "Old Hugh," the mildest of fanatics; I well remember Matthew Bell, But very faintly, Mathematics. I recollect the prizes paid For lessons fathomed to the bottom; (Alas that pencil-marks should fade!) I recollect the chaps who got 'em, -- The light equestrians who soared O'er every passage reckoned stony; And took the chalks, -- but never scored A single honor to the pony! Ah me! what changes Time has wrought, And how predictions have miscarried! A few have reached the goal they sought, And some are dead, and some are married! And some in city journals war; And some as politicians bicker; And some are pleading at the bar -- For jury-verdicts, or for liquor! And some on Trade and Commerce wait; And some in schools with dunces battle; And some the Gospel propagate; And some the choicest breeds of cattle; And some are living at their ease; And some were wrecked in "the revulsion"; Some served the State for handsome fees, And one, I hear, upon compulsion! LAMONT, who, in his college days, Thought e'en a cross a moral scandal, Has left his Puritanic ways, And worships now with bell and candle; And MANN, who mourned the negro's fate, And held the slave as most unlucky, Now holds him, at the market rate, On a plantation in Kentucky! TOM KNOX -- who swore in such a tone It fairly might be doubted whether It really was himself alone, Or Knox and Erebus together -- Has grown a very altered man, And, changing oaths for mild entreaty, Now recommends the Christian plan To savages in Otaheite! Alas for young ambition's vow! How envious Fate may overthrow it! -- Poor HARVEY is in Congress now, Who struggled long to be a poet; SMITH carves (quite well) memorial stones, Who tried in vain to make the law go; HALL deals in hides; and "Pious Jones" Is dealing faro in Chicago! And, sadder still, the brilliant HAYS, Once honest, manly, and ambitious, Has taken latterly to ways Extremely profligate and vicious; By slow degrees -- I can't tell how -- He's reached at last the very groundsel, And in New York he figures now, A member of the Common Council! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ON BEING ASKED IF ONE WAS A NUMBER, REPLY TO MR. HOUGHTON by ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD TO A CLOUD by WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT LESBIA [RAILING] by GAIUS VALERIUS CATULLUS INSCRIPTION FOR A MOSS-HOUSE IN THE SHRUBBERY AT WESTON by WILLIAM COWPER VOICES OF SCORN by WILLIAM HENRY DAVIES TO F.M.D (WITH A VOLUME OF HERBERT) by HENRY AUSTIN DOBSON |