1831.] Oxford ; a Poem. 423 



biographical sketch of whom, mixed up with sundry allusions to the 

 virtues of the late Bishop Heber, the First Part concludes. 



Part the Second opens with an apostrophe to England, in whose 

 name there is 



" A swell of glory, and a sound of fame ;" 



and one of whose natives who or what the gent, may be, we are not 

 informed is described as sending his son to Oxford, with " many a 

 bosomed fear/' which city the young man reaches at sunset, after tra- 

 velling a considerable distance : 



" The distance won, behold ! at evening hour 

 Thine eye's first wonder fixed on Maudlin tower, 

 Then gothic glories, as they swell to view 

 In steepled vastness, dark with ages' hue ; 

 And on thine ear when first the morn-bells wake, 

 As o'er the wind their jangled echoes shake, 

 Delighted fancy will illume thy brow, 

 To feel thyself in ancient Oxford now 1" 



We do not exactly know what reason there is for the young man to fancy 

 himself in Oxford, if he really is there. The " morn-bells" and the 

 "jangled echoes" shaking over the winds, are, we should conceive, 

 quite proof positive enough to convince him of his locality. Immedi- 

 ately on his arrival, this fanciful young man enters on college life, which 



" Begins at morn, and mingles with the day." 



He then walks in wonder 



" through the town, 

 In the first flutter of a virgin gown ! 

 From cap and robe what awkward shyness steals, 

 How wild a truth the dazzled Novice feels ! 

 Restless the eye, his voice a nervous sound, 

 While laughing echoes are alive around ; 

 Each look he faces seems on him to leer, 

 And fancied giggles are for ever near !" 



Allow us here to ask, Mr. Montgomery, what you mean by shyness 

 stealing from a cap and robe ? The phrase really looks suspicious ; as if 

 the articles had reason to be ashamed of their wearer! What, too, is the 

 meaning of the " dazzled Novice feeling a wild truth," because his virgin 

 gown flutters, and his cap and robe look shy ? We must confess we are 

 in the dark on both these points. As for his being quizzed, that 

 we can understand, though we do not think the word " giggle" quite 

 so dignified or poetic as it might be. Despite the " giggles/' however, 

 it gives us pleasure to be able to state that the Novice musters courage 

 enough to walk stoutly down High-street, 



" Arrayed with palaces on either side ;" 



-a description, by the way, which applies to Waterloo-place, Pall-Mall, 

 or Regent- street, with quite as much propriety as to High-street. On 

 his road the Novice stops a moment, 



" To take a freeze of horror from the schools ;" 



probably from some awkward reminiscences connected with the birch and 

 cane ; after which, he stops opposite the Clarendon, 



