<html xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"><body><h1 align="center" class="head">The Gentlemen of Oxford</h1><p class="byline"> NORAH M. HOLLAND <br xmlns:exist="http://exist.sourceforge.net/NS/exist" xmlns:html="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"/><span class="smallcaps">IN Everywoman's World</span></p><div class="stanza"><p class="line">THE sunny streets of Oxford </p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Are lying still and bare.</p><p class="line">No sound of voice or laughter</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Rings through the golden air;</p><p class="line">And, chiming from her belfry,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">No longer Christchurch calls</p><p class="line">The eager, boyish faces</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">To gather in her halls.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">The colleges are empty.</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Only the sun and wind</p><p class="line">Make merry in the places</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">The lads have left behind.</p><p class="line">But, when the trooping shadows</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Have put the day to flight,</p><p class="line">The Gentlemen of Oxford</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Come homing through the night.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">From France they come, and Flanders,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">From Mons, and Marne and Aisne.</p><p class="line">From Greece and from Gallipoli</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">They come to her again;</p><p class="line">From the North Sea's grey waters,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">From many a grave unknown,</p><p class="line">The Gentlemen of Oxford</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Come back to claim their own.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">The dark is full of laughter,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Boy laughter, glad and young.</p><p class="line">They tell the old-time stories,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">The old-time songs are sung;</p><p class="line">They linger in her cloisters,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">They throng her dewy meads,</p><p class="line">Till Isis hears their calling</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">And laughs among her reeds.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">But, when the east is whitening</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">To greet the rising sun,</p><p class="line">And slowly, over Carfax,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">The stars fade, one by one,</p><p class="line">Then, when the dawn-wind whispers</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Along the Isis shore,</p><p class="line">The Gentlemen of Oxford</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Must seek their graves once more. </p></div></body></html> · Great War