Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, AD LECTIONEM SUAM, by ALFRED DENNIS GODLEY


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

AD LECTIONEM SUAM, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: When autumn's winds denude the grove
Last Line: Again!'
Alternate Author Name(s): Godley, A. D.
Subject(s): Oxford University


WHEN Autumn's winds denude the grove,
I seek my Lecture, where it lurks
'Mid the unpublished portion of
My works,

And ponder, while its sheets I scan,
How many years away have slipt
Since first I penned that ancient manuscript.

I know thee well -- nor can mistake
The old accustomed pencil stroke
Denoting where I mostly make
A joke, --

Or where coy brackets signify
Those echoes faint of classic wit
Which, if a lady's present, I
Omit.

Though Truth enlarge her widening range,
And Knowledge be with time increased,
While thou, my Lecture! dost not change
The least,

But fixed immutable amidst
The advent of a newer lore,
Maintainest calmly what thou didst
Before:

Though still malignity avows
That unsuccessful candidates
To thee ascribe their frequent ploughs
In Greats --

Once more for intellectual food
Thou'lt serve: an added phrase or two
Will make thee really just as good
As new:

And listening crowds, that throng the spot,
Will still as usual complain
That 'Here's the old familiar rot
Again!'





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