ON LEAVING HARROW SCHOOL. O dulces comitum valete cœtus, CATULLUS. As evening shades in summer calm the light, All are pre-doom'd to taste the cup of woe, To war with griefs which here they never know. When sickness wastes the frame, disgrace the heart, Till memory wakes in age a transient joy, Ye dear companions of my early years, Still shall this hill, with Wisdom's nurslings blest, To body forth in verse the fleeting thought, That charm'd the fancy while it mock'd the mind, Here throbb'd my anxious breast 'twixt hope and fear, * Orbilius is the name of the schoolmaster of Horace. Here poetic licence makes it synonymous with that of any schoolmaster. |