Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
A Retrospect.
A RETROSPECT .
WE print two poems here paginally , as a matter of study of comparison . One is by J . G . Saxe , in the Keystone ; the other is a famous one by W . M . Praed , the original and parent of all similar productions . It may be doubted , nevertheless , if any of the subsequent imitations—and they are many and clever—come up to the grace and ring of the earlier poem .
SCHOOL AND SCHOOLFELLOWS . Floreat JSlona . TWEIVB years ago I made a mock Of filthy trades and traffics : I wondered what they meant by stock ; I wrote delightful sapphics ;
I knew the streets of Borne and Troy , I supped with Pates and Furies , — Twelve years ago I was a boy , A happy boy , at Drury's Twelve years ago !—how many a thought Of faded pains and pleasures Those whispered syllables have brought
Prom Memory's hoarded treasures ! The fields , the farms , the bats , the books , The glories and disgraces , The voices of dear friends , the looks Of old familiar faces !
Kind Mater smiles agam to me , As bright as when we parted ; I seem again the frank , the free , Stout-limbed , and simple-hearted ! Pursuing every idle dream , And shunning every warning ; With no hard work but Bovney stream , No chill except Long Morning .
Now stopping Harry Vernon ' s ball That rattled like a rocket ; Now hearing Wentworth's " Fourteen all ! ,: And striking for the pocket ; Now feasting on a cheese and flitch , — Now drinking from the pewter ; Now leaping over Chalvey ditch , Now laughing at my tutor .
Where are my friends ? I am alone ; No playmate shares my beaker : Some lie beneath the churchyard stone , And some—before the Speaker ; And some compose a tragedy , And some compose a rondo ; And some draw sword for Liberty , And some draw pleas for John Doe .
Tom Mill was used to blacken eyes Without the fear of sessions ; Charles Medlar loathed false cpiantities As much as false professions ; Now Mill keeps order in the land , A magistrate pedantic ; And Medlar ' s feet repose unscanned Beneath the wide Atlantic .
Wild Nick , whose pranks made such a din , Does Dr . Martext's duty ; And Mullion , with that monstrous chin , Is married to a Beauty ;
A RETROSPECT . BY JOHN G . S . VXB . 'Tis twenty years , and something more ,
Since , all athirst for useful knowledge , I took some draughts of classic lore , Drawn , very mild , at Harvard College ; Yet I remember all that one Could wish to hold in recollection , — The boys , tho 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 tlie 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 siugle honour 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 :
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
A Retrospect.
A RETROSPECT .
WE print two poems here paginally , as a matter of study of comparison . One is by J . G . Saxe , in the Keystone ; the other is a famous one by W . M . Praed , the original and parent of all similar productions . It may be doubted , nevertheless , if any of the subsequent imitations—and they are many and clever—come up to the grace and ring of the earlier poem .
SCHOOL AND SCHOOLFELLOWS . Floreat JSlona . TWEIVB years ago I made a mock Of filthy trades and traffics : I wondered what they meant by stock ; I wrote delightful sapphics ;
I knew the streets of Borne and Troy , I supped with Pates and Furies , — Twelve years ago I was a boy , A happy boy , at Drury's Twelve years ago !—how many a thought Of faded pains and pleasures Those whispered syllables have brought
Prom Memory's hoarded treasures ! The fields , the farms , the bats , the books , The glories and disgraces , The voices of dear friends , the looks Of old familiar faces !
Kind Mater smiles agam to me , As bright as when we parted ; I seem again the frank , the free , Stout-limbed , and simple-hearted ! Pursuing every idle dream , And shunning every warning ; With no hard work but Bovney stream , No chill except Long Morning .
Now stopping Harry Vernon ' s ball That rattled like a rocket ; Now hearing Wentworth's " Fourteen all ! ,: And striking for the pocket ; Now feasting on a cheese and flitch , — Now drinking from the pewter ; Now leaping over Chalvey ditch , Now laughing at my tutor .
Where are my friends ? I am alone ; No playmate shares my beaker : Some lie beneath the churchyard stone , And some—before the Speaker ; And some compose a tragedy , And some compose a rondo ; And some draw sword for Liberty , And some draw pleas for John Doe .
Tom Mill was used to blacken eyes Without the fear of sessions ; Charles Medlar loathed false cpiantities As much as false professions ; Now Mill keeps order in the land , A magistrate pedantic ; And Medlar ' s feet repose unscanned Beneath the wide Atlantic .
Wild Nick , whose pranks made such a din , Does Dr . Martext's duty ; And Mullion , with that monstrous chin , Is married to a Beauty ;
A RETROSPECT . BY JOHN G . S . VXB . 'Tis twenty years , and something more ,
Since , all athirst for useful knowledge , I took some draughts of classic lore , Drawn , very mild , at Harvard College ; Yet I remember all that one Could wish to hold in recollection , — The boys , tho 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 tlie 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 siugle honour 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 :