THOSE HORRID SCHOOLS.
I.
THE shades of night were falling fast,
As through the quad a gownsman passed,
Whose seedy look and sunken cheek
Bespoke as plain as words could speak,
"Those horrid schools!"
II.
His coat was worn; his bags beneath
Were quite too short his legs to sheath,
While like a penny trumpet rung
The treble of that mournful tongue,
"Those horrid schools!"
III.
In happy homes he left the light
Of household fires both warm and bright;
Before the spectral "Great Go" shone,
And from his lips escaped a groan,
"Those horrid schools!"
IV.
"Try but to pass," his tutor said,
"A class is not within your head.
The yawning gulf is deep and wide!"
But still that treble voice replied,
"Those horrid schools!"
V.
"Oh stay!" the maiden said, "and rest
Thy learned head upon my breast!"
A tear stood in his sunken eye,
He blushed, and answered, looking shy,
"Those horrid schools!"
VI.
"Beware tobacco's withered plant!
Beware of vinous stimulant!"
This was the gov'nor's last good-bye,
A voice replied, from out the fly,
"Those horrid schools!"
VII.
At break of day, as through the gloom
The scout when going from room to room,
Uttered the oft repeated call,
A voice came from the bedroom small,
"Those horrid schools!"
VIII.
The poor young sap asleep quite sound,
Half buried in the sheets was found,
Still grasping, nibbled by the mice,
An Ethics with the strange device,
"Those horrid schools!"
IX.
There in the twilight, cold and grey,
Dirty, unwashen, there he lay,
While from his scout the sentence flowed,
"Oh drat those books—them schools be blowed,
"Them 'orrid schools!"
College Rhymes, 1861