ROBED in the grandeur of thy waving woods,
Girt with a silver zone of winding floods,
That kiss their flowery banks in sportive play,
Fleet as earth's smiling joys that pass away,
Fair art thou, Oxford! Through thy shady groves,
Thy cloistered gloom which Contemplation loves,
The chaste Aonian virgins joy to stray,
Hid from the garish face of ardent day;
While amorous Phoebus, through the leafy screen,
Steals sidelong glances o'er thine alleys green,
Or, to the music of the purling streams,
Gay o'er their bosom dance his scattered beams.
Nor less when Cynthia, empress of the night,
Majestic rising, pours her milder light;
Bright beam thy spires, pure as th' untrodden snow,
And sleep in massy shade thy woods below,
While from those piles, in glistening beauty fair,
Rich pealing music fills the evening air.
'Mid scenes like these, in Fancy's youthful hour, The classic muse exerts her mightiest power,
Bids the young Bard his tender pinions try
With those who dared of old the trackless sky;
And heavenly Pallas lifts her votary's soul,
Where countless worlds in silent circles roll;
Here, in his works, his Parent he descries,
And, raptured, claims alliance with the skies.
Hence, 'mid the triflers of this sordid earth,
He towers in lofty deeds and stainless worth,
Through future years to shine, by her inspired
With patriot zeal, or rapt devotion fired.
Hence the immortal names that grace thy page,
Succeeding boasts of each revolving age;
Thus Chaucer's lays, and Sackville's numbers rung,
And classic Addison, and Warton sung:
Here Butler sternly trained his giant mind,
And Johnson's moral muse enriched mankind:
Here too, in later days, our Heber strayed
To dream of eastern suns, and palmtree shade;
Nor haply weened his sainted dust should rest,
Wept by her swarthy sons, on India's breast:
Stowell and Eldon here in youth began
That bright fraternal course they nobly ran ;
And one, in hoary age sublimely great,
Still stands, th' unshaken Nestor of the state.
Deem it not strange that scenes like these impart
A charm resistless to the generous heart;
Deem it not strange that souls of high command,
Statesmen that rule, or chiefs that guard the land,
Should hither turn in musing mood to dwell,
On pleasures past, and haunts they loved so well;
And hallowed piles, and towering fabrics raise,
To the loved guardian of their earlier days.
Thus sprung her glory-thus the good, the great,
Through years successive swelled her princely state;
Thus Radcliffe's dome its arching beauty shews,
And, Clarendon, thy Doric structure rose :
Hence the rich fruit of pious Sheldon's care,
This matchless roof in pictured splendor fair;
Where Oxford saw, in Academic robe,
The gathered sovereigns of a rescued globe,
In concert hail to her maternal breast,
Th' adopted Son whose prowess gave them rest.
And deem not, Oxford! though in deepening gloom
Tearful thou stood'st o'er Grenville's honour'd tomb,
Thyself forgotten, or thy glories past,
Nor quail 'neath boastful Faction's rising blast,-
For lo! he comes, thy drooping head to raise,
That Son whom sceptred monarchs joined to praise.
From Belgium's plain to Ganges' orient wave
Earth hails thee, Chieftain, peerless 'mongst the brave;
Hispania's valleys sound thy praise along,
And Pyrenæan heights repeat the song,
While Britain triumphs in her Hero's might,
Great in the senate, matchless in the fight.
Conqueror of him who swayed the affrighted earth,
In soul superior, as renowned in birth,
This day propitious crowns thy glories won,
Fair Learning's Champion, Oxford's darling Son!
Cedant arma togæ. CICERO.
JAM jam paternam desere, desere
Nysen, perennis lætitiæ dator,
Iacche, flaventes capillos
Pampinea redimitus umbra.
Tecum citato duc Venerem gradu,
Et, cum venusta matre, Cupidinem.
Vinumque subridens coronet
Euphrosyne, facilisque Lusus.
Signet beatam cressa diem nota:
Faustisque læti vocibus inclytum
Heroa, frenatosque reges,
Et trepidis data jura Gallis,
Cantemus.-Hic, hic, Maxime principum, Fessum cruenta militia latus
Depone, victricesque lauros
Cinge volens hedera sequaci—
Neu parva temnas munera Lesbia
Musæ superbus: consecrat aurea
Testudine Augusti tropæa
Melpomene: renovata cantu
|