A Vision Of A Wrangler, Of A University, Of Pedantry, And Of Philosophy Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AAABCCCC CCCCDCDC EECCCCCC FFFCGGGC GGGCCCCC GGGCFFFC CCDCCCCC CCCHCCCH IJICCCCC CCCCCCCC GGGCCCCC FFKLFFFL CCCCFFFC FFFCCCCC FFFCMGGC GNECEEEC GGGGCCCG CCCCOGOC EEECEEEC FFFGFFFG GGGCFFFC EEEGGGGG FFFCEEEC FFFCGGGC| Deep St Mary's bell had sounded | A |
| And the twelve notes gently rounded | A |
| Endless chimneys that surrounded | A |
| My abode in Trinity | B |
| Letter G Old Court South Attics | C |
| I shut up my mathematics | C |
| That confounded hydrostatics | C |
| Sink it in the deepest sea | C |
| - | |
| In the grate the flickering embers | C |
| Served to show how dull November s | C |
| Fogs had stamped my torpid members | C |
| Like a plucked and skinny goose | C |
| And as I prepared for bed I | D |
| Asked myself with voice unsteady | C |
| If of all the stuff I read I | D |
| Ever made the slightest use | C |
| - | |
| Late to bed and early rising | E |
| Ever luxury despising | E |
| Ever training never quot sizing quot | C |
| I have suffered with the rest | C |
| Yellow cheek and forehead ruddy | C |
| Memory confused and muddy | C |
| These are the effects of study | C |
| Of a subject so unblest | C |
| - | |
| Look beyond and see the wrangler | F |
| Now become a College dangler | F |
| Court some spiritual angler | F |
| Nibbling at his golden bait | C |
| Hear him silence restive Reason | G |
| Her advice is out of season | G |
| While her lord is plotting treason | G |
| Gainst himself and Church or State | C |
| - | |
| See him next with place and pension | G |
| And the very best intention | G |
| Of upholding that Convention | G |
| Under which his fortunes rose | C |
| Every scruple is rejected | C |
| With his cherished schemes connected | C |
| quot Higher Powers may be neglected | C |
| His result no further goes quot | C |
| - | |
| Much he lauds the education | G |
| Which has raised to lofty station | G |
| Men whose powers of calculation | G |
| Calculation s self defied | C |
| How the learned fool would wonder | F |
| Were he now to see his blunder | F |
| When he put his reason under | F |
| The control of worldly Pride | C |
| - | |
| Thus I muttered very seedy | C |
| Husky was my throat and reedy | C |
| And no wonder for indeed I | D |
| Now had caught a dreadful cold | C |
| Thickest fog had settled slowly | C |
| Round the candle burning lowly | C |
| Round the fire where melancholy | C |
| Traced retreating hills of gold | C |
| - | |
| Still those papers lay before me | C |
| Problems made express to bore me | C |
| When a silent change came o er me | C |
| In my hard uneasy chair | H |
| Fire and fog and candle faded | C |
| Spectral forms the room invaded | C |
| Little creatures that paraded | C |
| On the problems lying there | H |
| - | |
| Fathers there of every college | I |
| Led the glorious ranks of knowledge | J |
| Men whose virtues all acknowledge | I |
| Levied the proctorial fines | C |
| There the modest Moderators | C |
| Set apart as arbitrators | C |
| Twixt contending calculators | C |
| Scrutinised the trembling lines | C |
| - | |
| All the costly apparatus | C |
| That is meant to elevate us | C |
| To the intellectual status | C |
| Necessary for degrees | C |
| College tutors private coaches | C |
| Line the Senate house approaches | C |
| If our Alma Mater dote she s | C |
| Taken care of well by these | C |
| - | |
| Much I doubted if the vision | G |
| Were the simple repetition | G |
| Of the statements of Commission | G |
| Strangely jumbled oddly placed | C |
| When an awful form ascended | C |
| And with cruel words defended | C |
| Those abuses that offended | C |
| My unsanctioned private taste | C |
| - | |
| Angular in form and feature | F |
| Unlike any earthly creature | F |
| She had properties to meet your | K |
| Eye whatever you might view | L |
| Hair of pens and skin of paper | F |
| Breath not breath but chemic vapour | F |
| Dress such dress as College Draper | F |
| Fashions with precision due | L |
| - | |
| Eyes of glass with optic axes | C |
| Twisting rays of light as flax is | C |
| Twisted while the Parallax is | C |
| Made to show the real size | C |
| Primary and secondary | F |
| Focal lines in planes contrary | F |
| Sum up all that's known to vary | F |
| In those dull unmeaning eyes | C |
| - | |
| Such the eyes through which all Nature | F |
| Seems reduced to meaner stature | F |
| If you had them you would hate your | F |
| Symbolising sense of sight | C |
| Seeing planets in their courses | C |
| Thick beset with arrowy quot forces quot | C |
| While the common eye no more sees | C |
| Than their mild and quiet light | C |
| - | |
| quot Son quot she said what could be queerer | F |
| Than thus t te t te to hear her | F |
| Talk in tones approaching nearer | F |
| To a saw's than aught beside | C |
| For the voice the spectre spoke in | M |
| Might be known by many a token | G |
| To proceed from metal broken | G |
| When acoustic tricks were tried | C |
| - | |
| Little pleased to hear the Siren | G |
| quot Own quot me thus with voice of iron | N |
| I had thoughts of just retiring | E |
| From a mother such a fright | C |
| quot No quot she said quot the time is pressing | E |
| So before I give my blessing | E |
| I ll excuse you from confessing | E |
| What you thought of me to night | C |
| - | |
| quot Powers quot she cried with hoarse devotion | G |
| quot Give my son the clearest notion | G |
| How to compass sure promotion | G |
| And take care of Number One | G |
| Let his college course be pleasant | C |
| Let him ever as at present | C |
| Seem to have read what he hasn't | C |
| And to do what can t be done | G |
| - | |
| Of the Philosophic Spirit | C |
| Richly may my son inherit | C |
| As for Poetry inter it | C |
| With the myths of other days | C |
| Cut the thing entirely lest yon | O |
| College Don should put the question | G |
| Why not stick to what you're best on | O |
| Mathematics always pays quot | C |
| - | |
| As the Hag was thus proceeding | E |
| To prescribe my course of reading | E |
| And as I was faintly pleading | E |
| Hardly knowing what to say | C |
| Suddenly my head inclining | E |
| I beheld a light form shining | E |
| And the withered beldam whining | E |
| Saw the same and slunk away | C |
| - | |
| Then the vision growing brighter | F |
| Seemed to make my garret lighter | F |
| As when noisome fogs of night are | F |
| Scattered by the rising sun | G |
| Nearer still it grew and nearer | F |
| Till my straining eyes caught clearer | F |
| Glimpses of a being dearer | F |
| Dearer still than Number One | G |
| - | |
| In that well remembered Vision | G |
| I was led to the decision | G |
| Still to hold in calm derision | G |
| Pedantry however draped | C |
| Since that artificial spectre | F |
| Proved a paltry sub collector | F |
| And had nothing to connect her | F |
| With the being whom she aped | C |
| - | |
| I could never finish telling | E |
| You of her that has her dwelling | E |
| Where those springs of truth are welling | E |
| Whence all streams of beauty run | G |
| She has taught me that creation | G |
| Bears the test of calculation | G |
| But that Man forgets his station | G |
| If he stops when that is done | G |
| - | |
| Is our algebra the measure | F |
| Of that unexhausted treasure | F |
| That affords the purest pleasure | F |
| Ever found when it is sought | C |
| Let us rather realising | E |
| The conclusions thence arising | E |
| Nature more than symbols prizing | E |
| Learn to worship as we ought | C |
| - | |
| Worship Yes what worship better | F |
| Than when free'd from every fetter | F |
| That the uninforming letter | F |
| Rivets on the tortured mind | C |
| Man with silent admiration | G |
| Sees the glories of Creation | G |
| And in holy contemplation | G |
| Leaves the learned crowd behind | C |
James Clerk Maxwell
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About A Vision Of A Wrangler, Of A University, Of Pedantry, And Of Philosophy
A Vision Of A Wrangler, Of A University, Of Pedantry, And Of Philosophy is a poem by James Clerk Maxwell. This page includes the poem text, poet information, related topics, comments, and similar poems.
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