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AN OXFORD IDYLL, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Ah little mill, you're rumbling still
Last Line: Are twenty-two for ever.
Alternate Author Name(s): Brown, T. E.
Subject(s): Oxford University; Youth


AH little mill, you're rumbling still,
Ah sunset flecked with gold!
Ah deepening tinge, ah purple fringe
Of lilac as of old!
Ah hawthorn hedge, ah light-won pledge
Of kisses warm and plenty,
When she was true, and twenty-two,
And I was two-and-twenty.
I don't know how she broke her vow --
She said that I was "horty";
And there's the mill a goin' still,
And I am five-and-forty.
And sooth to tell, 'twas just as well,
Her aitches were uncertain;
Her ways though nice, not point-device;
Her father liked his "Burton."
But there's a place you cannot trace,
So spare the fond endeavour --
A cloudless sky, where Kate and I
Are twenty-two for ever.





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