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The Spike or Victoria College Review, June 1908

Antipodean Horace. — Carmen VIII

Antipodean Horace.

Carmen VIII.

Come, chloe, tell me, pray,
By all the gods, why you with too fond wooing
Young Strephon lead astray
To his undoing.

Say why he loathes the field,
Who once of dust and heat was so enduring,
And does to softness yield,
All sport abjuring.

'Tis said he never tries,
In Tennis Tournament 'neath sun that mellows
To bear away the prize
Among his fellows.

page 73

Why does he fear to plunge
Into the tide, or through what aberration,
Like poison, shun the sponge
And embrocation?

Where are the bruiséd limbs,
Once black and blue with standing at the wicket;
What is the cloud that dims
Hi fame at cricket?

Why is he never seen
A footballer at Miramar together
With wearers of the green
Chasing the leather?

Say why the fair youth shirks
His round of manly sport, and what his plea is,
Who, like Achilles, lurks
With what Briseis?

Chloe, you are to blame
That Strephon now has lost all zeal athletic;
He owns it to his shame,
Captive pathetic.

Arthur Chorlton.