 | By Severn Sea and Other Poems |  |
20
ADDISON'S WALK
Green natural cloister of our Academe,
What ghost is this that greets us as we pace
Beneath your boughs, the genius of the place,
With soft accost that fits our musing dream?
Scholar, divine, or statesman would beseem
That reverend air, that pensive-brilliant face
And lofty wit and speech of Attic grace
Rich in grave ornament and noble theme:
What ghost is this that greets us as we pace
Beneath your boughs, the genius of the place,
With soft accost that fits our musing dream?
Scholar, divine, or statesman would beseem
That reverend air, that pensive-brilliant face
And lofty wit and speech of Attic grace
Rich in grave ornament and noble theme:
'Tis he who played unspoiled a worldly part,
Taught the town truth, and in a formal age
Lured fop and toast to heed a note sublime;
Who here had early learned the crowning art,
To walk the world like Plato's monarch-sage,
Spectator of all being and all time.
Taught the town truth, and in a formal age
Lured fop and toast to heed a note sublime;
Who here had early learned the crowning art,
To walk the world like Plato's monarch-sage,
Spectator of all being and all time.
| By Severn Sea and Other Poems | |