DUNS SCOTUS'S OXFORD - Thomas Hood Poems

 
 

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DUNS SCOTUS'S OXFORD

Towery city & branchy between towers;
    Cuckoo-echoing, bell-swarmèd, lark charmèd, rook racked, river-rounded;
    The dapple-eared lily below thee; that country & town did
Once encounter in, here coped & poisèd powers;
Thou hast a base & brickish skirt there, sours
    That neighbour-nature thy grey beauty is grounded
    Best in; graceless growth, thou hast confounded
Rural, rural keeping -- folk, flocks, & flowers.

Yet ah! this air I gather & I release
    He lived on: these weeds & waters, these walls are what
He haunted who of all men most sways my spirits to peace;
    Of realty the rarest-veinèd unraveller; a not
Rivalled insight, be rival Italy or Greece;
    Who fíred Fránce for Máry withóut spót.