Ah, well, good-bye to you, dear old friend, the river won't seem the same When another stands in the well-known place, and is called by another name. Here on the banks of the sluggish Cam the best of your life was passed, And I know when your strength was well-nigh spent your thoughts turned here at the last. Loyal and staunch as a man should be, with the heart of a little child, After weary months when the summons came you folded your hands and smiled. And I think that the Angel of Mercy who stands on the topmost hill Will stretch a hand, for he knows men's hearts, to our dear old boatman Bill. R. C. LEHMANN. IS FOOTBALL PLAYING? "Is football playing Along the river shore, Ay, the ball is flying, The lads play heart and soul; ALFRED EDWARD HOUSMAN. SMITH OF MAUDLIN. My chums will burn their India weeds As white the thin smoke melts away; Was poor old Smith's of Maudlin." The boats are out! - the arrowy rush, The mad bull's jerk, the tiger's strength; The Balliol men have wopped the Queen's — Hurrah! but only by a length. Dig on, ye muffs, ye cripples, dig! Pull blind, till crimson sweats the skin; The man who bobs and steers cries, "Oh, For plucky Smith of Maudlin!" But all this time beneath the sheet I shall lie still, and free from pain, To gossip round the blinded pane; WALTER THORNBURY, GOLFING BY THE FIRE. ERE yet the evening lights are lit, To those dead days, a radiant span, How could a golfer's thews but thrive Of skill a subtler showing made, Since golfer at St. Andrew's played? "Dead" by the hole upon the green! Thus o'er and o'er your prowess some or more! CLINTON SCOLLARD. TO AN ATHLETE DYING YOUNG. THE time you won your town the race And home we brought you shoulder-high. To-day, the road all runners come, Smart lad, to slip betimes away Eyes the shady night has shut And silence sounds no worse than cheers After earth has stopped the ears: Now you will not swell the rout Of lads that wore their honours out, Runners whom Renown outran And the name died before the man. So set, before its echoes fade, |