27.12.2010, 17:30
THE SCHOOL-BOY'S DREAM ON THE NIGHT BEFORE THE HOLIDAYS.
'Twas the half-year's last day, a festal one ;
Light tasks and feast and sport, hoop, cricket, kite.
Employed us fully, till the summer-night
Stole o'er the roofs of happy Alderton.
Homer indoors, and field-games out of school,
Made medley of my dreams ; for, when I slept,
The quaintest vision o'er my fancy swept,
That ever served the lordship of misrule :
Our hoops through gods and heroes ran a-muck ;
Our kites o'erhung the fleet, a public gaze !
And one wild ball the great Achilles struck —
Oh ! how he tower'd and lighten'd at the stroke !
But, tho' his formal pardon I bespoke,
I told him plainly 'twas our holidays.
'Twas the half-year's last day, a festal one ;
Light tasks and feast and sport, hoop, cricket, kite.
Employed us fully, till the summer-night
Stole o'er the roofs of happy Alderton.
Homer indoors, and field-games out of school,
Made medley of my dreams ; for, when I slept,
The quaintest vision o'er my fancy swept,
That ever served the lordship of misrule :
Our hoops through gods and heroes ran a-muck ;
Our kites o'erhung the fleet, a public gaze !
And one wild ball the great Achilles struck —
Oh ! how he tower'd and lighten'd at the stroke !
But, tho' his formal pardon I bespoke,
I told him plainly 'twas our holidays.