An Extract From “Q.C.G.”, 1905:

 

La Belle Jib Sans Merci

 

(With apologies to the shade of Keats)

 

 

 

“Oh, what can ail thee, First-Year-Man!

Alone in College loitering?

Thy fellows have left books and digs

And everything.

 

Oh, what can ail thee, First-Year-Man!

That o’er thy books thou swattest so?

The exams are done, the students gone

Now long ago.

 

I see a towel round thy brows,

To cool thy head that thou mays’t stew.

Yet ‘tis July; work should be o’er,

What dost thou do?”

 

“I met a maiden in the Quad,

Full beautiful; a Lady-jib.

Her face was fair, her eyes were bright,

Her tongue was glib.

 

When I to her was introduced

Full tenderly her hand I squeezed.

She blushed, but, on the whole, I thought

Looked rather pleased.

 

I took her to the tennis-court,

And played at tennis all day long,

My friends would say, “By jove, old chap,

You’re going strong.”

 

She made me on her errands run,

And kept me trotting to and fro,

Her wish was law; she’d but to ask;

Straight would I go.

 

In lectures seldom was she seen;

When she was absent – I was too.

And often was I told that this

In June I’d rue.

 

When all the rest was swatting hard

We walked beneath the fair May moon,

----- I woke one morn to find it was

The sixth of June.

 

I saw the rest, with knowing looks,

Enter th’ examination hall.

They laughed “La belle jib sans merci

Hath thee in thrall.”

 

I too, went in, though all the rest

My chances small did much deride.

I wrote my number on the sheet,

And ----- naught beside!

 

I got a letter later on:

“The Examiners do much regret (?)

Your name cannot appear upon

The pass-lists yet.”

 

And that is why I still stay here –

Here in the library I cram;

That in October, I’ll get my

First Arts exam.”

 

“Vive l’Amour.”