Classic Poem

Still is North Hinksey very much the same
—Albeit the highway to that sylvan spot
Is fringed with hoardings, and the classic lea
Turned to an Eligible Building Lot
Destined for Britain's aristocracy—
As when enthusiasts came
(Ruskinian ardour being then the mode,
Ere football was, or bicycling, or golf)
And, 'spite the jeers of Philistines who scoff,
Wrought fruitlessly at Mr. Ruskin's road.

Here lay our path, Amyntas! Thou and I
Came here and dug: I well remember how
We in our period undergraduate
Did by the perspiration of our brow
The Dignity of Labour vindicate:
But other fish to fry
Have modern scholars: these are not their games!
—Or if they dig, they seek the banks of Nile
Or plunder tombs in some Aegaean isle,
But ah! no more they delve beside the Thames!

New times, new manners! for the century brings
A troublous spirit: daily stress and storm
Invades the home of academic ease:
Men prate of University Reform,
Official Fellows, and Research Degrees,
And other such-like things:
And on the slopes where Thyrsis wont to roam
Sheep-bells are silent: but I hear the bell
That indicates the scorching bicycle,
And see the merry Oxford coaster come.

But who are these who cross the Isis' flow,
Pass the new Inn and thread the hamlet gray?
A Mission and an Enterprise sublime
Shines on their brow and points them on their way:
Are they the ghosts of that forgotten time?
Reflection answers, No:
These are the Horny-handed: in the van
Come Dons of Socialist proclivities,
And close behind I surely recognize
Mr. John Burns and Mr. Thomas Mann!

These are the new Ruskinians: To our doors
(While we lie torpid, obscurantists crass)
They bring the lore of Sanitation, and
The way to deal with Water and with Gas,
Such things as Vestrymen should understand,
And City Councillors—
All Science's improvements practical,
Wherein the Sage of Coniston professed
Notoriously a fervid interest,—
These are the things they teach at Ruskin Hall.

Go, for they call thee, Shepherd, from the hill!
Attend their lectures: thou hast much to learn:
How knows the wanderer in a dreamy Past
What Movements move us and what Questions burn?
Such store of Useful Knowledge as thou hast
Is practically nil:
Thou who devisest University
Extension for the Masses, see the end
To which thy labours humanizing tend—
The toiling Masses come to try their hand on thee!