A Dream

In sleep the errant phantasy, No more by sense imprisoned, Creates what possibly might be But actually isn't: And this my tale is past belief, Of truth and reason emptied, 'Tis fiction manifest--in brief I was asleep, and dreamt it.

I met a man by Isis' stream, Whose phrase discreet and prudent, Whose penchant for a learned theme Proclaimed the Serious Student: I never knew a scholar who Could more at ease converse on The latest Classical Review Than that superior person.

He spoke of books--all manly sports He deemed but meet for scoffing: He did not know the Racquet Courts-- He'd never heard of golfing-- Professors ne'er were half so wise, Nor Readers more sedate! He was--I learnt with some surprise-- An undergraduate.

Another man I met, whose head Was crammed with pastime's annals, And who, to judge from what he said, Must simply live in flannels: A shallow mind his talk proclaimed, And showed of culture no trace: One "book" and one alone he named-- His own--'twas on the Boat-race.

"Of course," you cry, "some brainless lad, Some scion of ancient Tories, Bob Acres, sent to Oxford ad Emolliendos mores, Meant but to drain the festive glass And win the athlete's pewter!" There you are wrong: this person was That undergraduate's Tutor.

* * * *

Twas but a dream, I said above, In concrete truth deficient, Belonging to the region of The wholly Unconditioned: Yet, when I see how strange the ways Of undergrad. and Don are, Methinks it was, in classic phrase, Not upar less than onar.

from the Greek as follows: "upar"--upsilon (possibly with the rough-breathing diacritical), pi, alpha, and rho; "onar"--omicron (possibly with the rough-breathing diacritical), nu, alpha, and rho.]