The Student Life

Dying in corridors,
(Vide Lalagen!)
Scaling stairs to upper floors,
Swarming down again.

Interim of sitting mute
(Hear the cosmic scheme!)
Time dimension grows acute;
Long for Lethe stream.

Perennial November's loom;
Examination's whip
Cracks in the ears like crack o' doom
To probe your scholarship.

When in the end you win the prize
The conquest (here's the scandal)
Shrinks to a fifth its former size.
Say, is it worth the candle?

—E.N.