We have started off from Leuchars, and my thoughts have started too
Back to times when this sensation was entirely fresh and new.
When I marvelled at the towers beyond the Eden’s wide expanse,
Eager-hearted as a boy when first he leaves his father’s manse
With some money in his pocket, with some down upon his cheek,
With the elements of Latin, with the rudiments of Greek.
And his spirit leaps within him to be gone before him then,
Underneath the towers he looks at, in among the throngs of men,
Men from Fife and men from Forfar, from the High School of Dundee,
Ten or twelve from other counties, and from England two or three.
Oh, the Bursary Competition! oh, the wonder and the rage,
When I saw my name omitted from the schedule in the cage!
Grief is strong but youth elastic, and I rallied from the blow,
For I felt that there were few things in the world I did not know.
Then my ready-made opinions upon all things under heaven
I declaimed with sound and fury, to an audience of eleven
Gathered in the Logic class-room, sworn to settle the debate,
Does the Stage upon the whole demoralise or elevate?
This and other joys I tasted. I became a Volunteer,
Murmuring Dulce et decorum in the Battery-Sergeant’s ear;