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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


AN OXFORD IDYLL by THOMAS EDWARD BROWN

First Line: AH LITTLE MILL, YOU'RE RUMBLING STILL
Last Line: ARE TWENTY-TWO FOR EVER.
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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