A Warning to Wantons

When I consider that this guinea, spent
On so futile an examination fee,
Might once have bought a hat, or have been lent
At compound interest; might have paid for me
To go to fourteen pictures, or have sent
An orphan for a fortnight to the sea,
I wonder with a vague astonishment
What made me buy these hours of misery.
"Can I reply at any length to this?"
I fondly ask, as I review with pain
The weight of some professor's mental capers.
Alas, it is an empty hope to wish
I had that wasted guinea back again,
They also pay who cannot do the papers.

—M.J.