rius hurled 'non placet'
At Post-Magister's head:
At the mere glance of Pottius
Fierce Radicalis fled:
And Parvus Mariensis--
So they who heard him tell--
Uttered but one false quantity,
And Professorius fell!

* * * *

XIV.

But fiercer still and fiercer
Fresh foemen sought the fray.
And fainter still and fainter
Stout Varius stood at bay.
'O that this too, too solid
Flesh would dissolve,' he sighed;
Yet still he stood undaunted,
And still the foe defied.

XV.

Then Pollia Nunamensis,
A student sweetly fair,
Famed for her smiles and dimples
Blue eyes and golden hair,
Of Cupid's arrows seized a pair,
One in each eye she took:
Cupid's best bow with all her might
She pulled--each arrow winged its flight,
And straightway reason, sense, and sight
Stout Varius forsook.

XVI.

'He falls'--the Placets thundered,
And filled the yawning gap;
In vain his trusty comrades
Avenge their chief's mishap--
His last great fight is done.
'They charge! Brave Pottius prostrate lies,
No Rider helps him to arise:
They charge! Fierce Mariensis dies.
The Bridge, the Bridge is won!

XVII.

In vain did Bencornutus
Flash lightnings from his beard;
In vain Fabrorum Maximus
His massive form upreared;
And Lumbius Revisorius--
Diviner potent he!--
And Peronatus robed in state,
And fine old Fossilis sedate,
All vainly stemmed the tide of fate--
Triumphed the Graces Three!

XVIII.

But when in future ages
Women have won their rights,
And sweet girl-undergraduates
Read through the lamp-lit nights;
When some, now unborn, Pollia
Her head with science crams;
When the girls make Greek Iambics,
And the boys black-currant jams;

XIX.

When the goodman's shuttle merrily
Goes flashing through the loom,
And the good wife reads her Plato
In her own sequestered room;
With weeping and with laughter
Still shall the tale be told,
How pretty Pollia won the Bridge
In the brave days of old.

(1881).

[1] The ancient name of Hitchin.

JULIA.

An Ode.

[NOTE.--The following imitation of Cowper's _Boadicea_ was written in
1858; most of its predictions have since been fulfilled.]

When the Cambridge flower-show ended,
And the flowers and guests were gone,