Skip to main content
UNC Libraries

1836. Horton, George Moses. "The Pleasures of a College Life."

1836. Horton, George Moses. "The Pleasures of a College Life."
1836. Horton, George Moses. "The Pleasures of a College Life."

Item Information

Title

1836. Horton, George Moses. "The Pleasures of a College Life."

Source

Pettigrew Family Papers (#592), Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Date

1836

Format

JPEG

Type

Document

Text

Lines composed by George Horton. 183[6]

The pleasures of a College life

With tears I leave these Academic bowers
And cease to cull the scientific flowers
With tears I hail the fair succeeding train
And take my exit with a breast of pain
The "Fresh" may trace these wonders as they smile(?)
The stream of sciences like the river Nile
Reflecting mutual beauties as it flows
Which all the charms of "College life" disclose
This sacred current as it runs refines
Whilst Byron sings and Shakespear's "mirror shines"
First like a garden flowr did I rise
When on the College bloom I cast my eyes
I strove to emulate each smiling gem
Resolved to wear the classic Diadem
But when the Freshmans garden breeze was gone
Around me spread a vast extensive lawn
Twas there the muse of College life begun
Beneath the rays of eruditions sun
When study drew the mystic forms down
And like the lamp of Nature with renown
There first I heard the Epic thunder rool
And Homers lightning darted through my soul
Hard was the task to trace each devious line
Tho' Locke and Newton bid me soar and shine
I sank beneath the heat of Franklin's blaze
And struck the notes of philosophic praise
With timid thought I strove the best to stand
Reclining on a cultivated land
Which often spread beneath a college bower
And thus invoked the intellectual shower
E'n that fond sin on whose stately crown
The smile of Courts and States shall shed renown
Now far above the noise of Country strife
I frown upon the gloom of rustick life

-----

Poetry written by
George Howard[sic]
Orange
County
N. Carolina