Genre:

Poetry

Subjects:

Universities, Progress, Environmentalism, Palaeontology, Race, Human Development

    Describes the University of Oxford as if it were a university in 'A long-forgotten city', hidden away in an 'ambrosial land', where many of the customs and vices of the present day (including the 'Penny Press' and adulterated wine) are absent, thus making for 'A happy life!'. Depicts the inhabitants as men who lead lives without knowing 'Change or mutation' and who are 'Peaceful, pacific, paneirenic'. Adds that this 'Primaeval race, with undisputed wills [...] Lapped in the golden age of hoary time, / When pleiosauri revelled in their slime, / And the great mastodon from dawn to day / Rood upon rood in lush morasses lay'.