TO AN UNAPPRECIATIVE UNIVERSITY 75
It’s a pity that they'll plough me, for I should have made
my mark at last,
If I only became master of a College;
My mighty mind was bound to have dispelled the dark at
last,
That covers all the rudiments of knowledge.
I should not have been expected in that station to produce
a thought,
Or do anything but drawa little salary;
And I would one day eventually most graciously let loose
a thought
On some subject such as Maeterlinck or Malory.
But good-bye to thoughts of greatness amid men of Major
Schol. degree!
It’s the first step that regards me with defiance;
They’ll allow me, p’raps, the General, or possibly the Poll
Degree, ,
For my papers in the Trip. of Moral Science.
So I, who might have risen to the fame of such a man as
Hobbes,
Or Leibnitz, or St Paul, or Dr Whewell,
Remain a mediocrity (excuse a water-can 0’ sobs!)
Exactly for my excellence—it’s cruel.