Page:Carroll - Phantasmagoria and other poems (1869).djvu/143

Let each that wears a beard, and each that shaves,
Join in the cry 'We never will be slaves!'
"But can the University afford
To be a slave to any kind of board?
A slave?" you shuddering ask. "Think you it can, Sir?"
"Not at the present moment." is my answer^[1].
I've thought the matter o'er and o'er again,
And given to it all my powers of brain;
I've thought it out, and this is what I make it,
(And I don't care a Tory how you take it:)
It may be right to go ahead, I guess:
It may be right to stop, I do confess:
Also, it may be right to retrogress^[2].$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$
So says the oracle, and, for myself, I
Must say it beats to fits the one at Delphi!
To save beloved Oxford from the yoke,
(For this majority's beyond a joke,)

 

1. 'The University cannot afford at the present moment to be delivered over as a slave to any non-academical interest whatever.'
2. 'It may be right to go on, it may be right to stand still, or it may be right to go back.'