After The German. A Sophomore Soliloquy.

Blackboard, with ruler and rubber before me,                 Chalk loosely held in my hand,             Sun-gilded motes in the air all around me,                 Listlessly dreaming I stand.             What do I care for the problem I've written                 In characters gracefully slight,             As the festal-robed beauties whose fairy feet flitted                 Through the maze of the German last night!             What do I care for the lever of friction,                 For sine, or co-ordinate plane,             When fairy musicians are playing the "Mabel,"                 And waltzes each nerve in my brain!             On my coat's powdered chalk, not the dust of the diamond                 That only last night sparkled there,             By the galop's wild whirl shower'd down on my shoulder                 From turbulent tresses of hair.             In my ear is the clatter of chalk against blackboard,                 Not music's voluptuous swell;             Alas! this is life, so pass mortal pleasures,                 And, thank goodness, there goes the bell!