A Fragment Found in a Lecture-Room

1. 1Where deep in mud Cam rolls his slumbrous stream,
2. 2And bog and desolation reign supreme;
3. 3Where all Boeotia clouds the misty brain,
4. 4The owl Mathesis pipes her loathsome strain.
5. 5Far, far aloof the frighted Muses fly,
6. 6Indignant Genius scowls and passes by:
7. 7The frolic Pleasures start amid their dance,
8. 8And Wit congeal'd stands fix'd in wintry trance.
9. 9But to the sounds with duteous haste repair
10. 10Cold Industry, and wary-footed Care;
11. 11And Dulness, dosing on a couch of lead,
12. 12Pleas'd with the song uplifts her heavy head,
13. 13The sympathetic numbers lists awhile,
14. 14Then yawns propitiously a frosty smile. . . .
15. 15[Caetera desunt.]