SLEEP OF A UNIVERSITY
by: F. Scott Fitzgerald
(1896-1940)
- ATCHING
through the long, dim hours
- Like statued Mithras, stand ironic towers;
- Their haughty lines severe by light
- Are softened and gain tragedy at night.
- Self-conscious, cynics of their charge,
- Proudly they challenge the dreamless world at large.
-
- From pseudo-ancient Nassau Hall, the bell
- Crashes the hour, as if to pretend "All's well!"
- Over the campus then the listless breeze
- Floats along drowsily, filtering through the trees,
- Whose twisted branches seem to lie
- Like point d'Alencon lace against the sky
- Of soft gray-black -- a gorgeous robe
- Buttoned with stars, hung over a tiny globe.
-
- With life far-off, peace sits supreme:
- The college slumbers in a fatuous dream,
- While, watching through the moonless hours
- Like statued Mithras, stand the ironic towers.
"Sleep of a University"
is reprinted from the Nassau Literary Magazine, November,
1920. |
MORE POEMS BY F. SCOTT FITZGERALD |
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