Page:Poems of the Great War - Cunliffe.djvu/183

 ��THE SPIRES OF OXFORD

I SAW the spires of Oxford

As I was passing by, The gray spires of Oxford

Against a pearl-gray sky. My heart was with the Oxford men

Who went abroad to die.

The years go fast in Oxford, The golden years and gay,

The hoary Colleges look down On careless boys at play.

But when the bugles sounded war They put their games away.

They left the peaceful river, The cricket-field, the quad.

The shaven lawns of Oxford To seek a bloody sod —

They gave their merry youth away For country and for God.

God rest you, happy gentlemen. Who laid your good lives down,

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