Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, A BALLADE OF COLLEGE GIRLS, by F. R. BATCHELDER


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

A BALLADE OF COLLEGE GIRLS, by                    
First Line: What do the dear girls learn nowadays
Last Line: I have been there, -- but I won't tell!
Subject(s): Sex; Universities & Colleges


WHAT do the dear girls learn nowadays,
At all the colleges where they go?
They've no cane-rushes nor football frays;
Whence can their wealth of wisdom flow?
Up at Wellesley they learn to row;
Gowns and mortar-boards there are swell;
They flirt in the shades of "Tupelo":
I have been there, -- but I won't tell!

The Smith girls had the dramatic craze,
And even the critics puffed their show;
The Amherst men are loud in their praise;
They diet on pickled limes and Poe.
At good Mount Holyoke, which some deem slow,
They learn to cook and to sweep as well;
Along with their Greek they're taught to sew:
I have been there, -- but I won't tell!

Cornell's "co-eds" have flattering ways;
Many a soul they have filled with woe;
Up at Vassar they're prone to stays,
And no girl there can have a beau;
All those beautiful blooms must throw
Their sweetness away where no man may dwell;
Rules can be cheated, sometimes, though:
I have been there, -- but I won't tell!

ENVOY.

Girls, the Blue and the Crimson know
How a tryst is kept after bedtime bell.
"Hush-sh," you whisper, "be cautious!" Oh,
I have been there, -- but I won't tell!





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