E. P. CHASE
(MAGDALEN)
ON A BIRTHDAY
AM I a man at last? I feared to think
Not long ago, that I could ever be
Older than twenty-one. Eternity
Is not more vast if one lean o’er its brink
Than are the cool sane draughts of years we drink
After the brilliance and the ecstasy
Of a decisive year. Majority
We hail; past commoner birthdays we slink.
We love all action that is glorious
It matters little whether, in our aim
We seem to fail or are victorious.
But in the lesser things and lesser hours
We must—how can we?—spend our treasured powers
For duties that can never bring us fame.
WILFRED CHILDE
(MAGDALEN)
SEA FAIRY
ALL day long the waves wander and the winds cry,
And there are blue stones sparkling by the shores;
But with evening there cometh a silence over the void sky
And the sea is hushed along her coral corridors.
Then the mer-girls fall asleep, their singing is over,
Their golden limbs lie stretched along the sands;
And wearily nods the Sun like a giant lover,
In a blood-red bath of dreams, with lilies in his hands.
On white wings screaming come the elvish gulls
But lo! where a glint of turquoise divides the cliffs,
Where the Halcyon Birds whom the rest of the world thinks fools
Are crossing the Ocean becalmed on their amorous skiffs.