Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, AN ETON ELEGY, by ROWLAND EYLES EGERTON-WARBURTON


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

AN ETON ELEGY, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Ye distant spires, ye antique towers
Last Line: "by our own alma mater."
Alternate Author Name(s): Egerton-warburton, R. E.
Subject(s): Hunger; Poverty


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."





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