Poems (Argent)/To a Student

by Alice Emily Argent

TO A STUDENT.

O STUDENT with the classic brow
 Filled overfull with ancient lore,
Shut up your books, put pens away,
 And do not study anymore.

Tis such a glorious summer-day,
 No cloud upon the azure sky,
A perfect radius of light
 Upon the earth and sea doth lie.

Come out upon the hill-side, then,
 The perfumed wind upon your check
Shall make you strong, refill your brain
 With healthy ozone, so to speak.

For once let freedom be your guide,
 Unshackled by a wandering look
Of passionate longing for the sight
 Of printed page, or, ponderous book.

Or, if it be that you must learn
 Let Nature teach you what is wise,
Look on her trees and waving woods,
 The solemn stillness of her skies.

Let not your eyes with lighted fires
 From high Olympus glower down
On us poor mortals that are tied
 To noisy street and smoky town.

But from the mountains of the gods
 Descend with footstep fast and free,
Yet bring us if you will a tale
 From off the shores of Arcady!

With flute and harp and flageolet
 We'll sing you many a festive lay,
And you will join our merry throng
 And turn from scholar grave to gay.

The wheat is like a sheet of gold
 All ready for the reaper's hand,
The meadows green with greenest grass,
 The river, beautiful and grand.

Sure! Pan might pipe a dulcet tune,
 There are so many reeds to make
A magic music quaint and soft
 And olden memories to wake.

And in and out the tangled wood
 A dryad or a faun might run,
Unknown to mortals it is true,
 And yet revealed perhaps to one.

So, student with the classic brow,
 Come quit your books, and take a sip
From Nature's nectar, let it touch
 The curved lines around your lip.

The gods have had you long enough,
 To Pallas you must bid adieu,
Come down to us and let us look
 For one brief month once more on you.

Your Plutarch and Euripides,
 With similar books of bygone date,
Horace and Ovid, and a host
 Of others equally as great;

Abandon them awhile, and bid
 Farewell to sweet Athenae's shrine,
And from the city of the gods
 Depart in peace, nor fret, nor pine.

Ere you should meet with further plight
 And fickle Cupid with his dart
Should take a random aim and plant
 The fatal arrow in your heart!

Your academic gown put off
 Exchange it for a suit of grey,
Come revel by the rippling brooks
 And throw scholastic cares away.

Forget the college and the dons,
 The world of school, each striving brain
That seeks for knowledge, let them pass
 And be a careless boy again.

Forget the toil, the grief, the strife,
 The battle for an honoured name,
The hollowness of earthly pomp,
 The goal that leads through tears to fame.

Dear student! with your classic brow
 Filled overfull with ancient lore,
Shut up your books, put pens away
 And do not study anymore!