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Home  »  Poems of Places An Anthology in 31 Volumes  »  Oxford, May 30, 1820

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
England: Vols. I–IV. 1876–79.

Oxford

Oxford, May 30, 1820

By William Wordsworth (1770–1850)

YE sacred nurseries of blooming youth!

In whose collegiate shelter England’s flowers

Expand, enjoying through their vernal hours

The air of liberty, the light of truth;

Much have ye suffered from Time’s gnawing tooth,

Yet, O ye spires of Oxford! domes and towers!

Gardens and groves! your presence overpowers

The soberness of reason; till, in sooth,

Transformed, and rushing on a bold exchange,

I slight my own belovéd Cam, to range

Where silver Isis leads my stripling feet;

Pace the long avenue, or glide adown

The stream-like windings of that glorious street,—

An eager novice robed in fluttering gown!