INSTALLATION ODE

WRITTEN FOR THE OXFORD COMMEMORATION OF 1870

AND OTHER POEMS

BY

SIR FRANCIS HASTINGS DOYLE, BART.

PROFESSOR OF POETRY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD

ODE FOR MUSIC.

TO BE SUNG IN THE SHELDONIAN THEATRE, OXFORD,

AT THE ENCÆNIA, JUNE 1870

On the first Visit of the most Hon. the MARQUIS OF SALISBURY, CHancellor.

Now let us praise our famous men,
With melodies, whose eager flight

Throbs through the trembling air as light,

With all that blended influence, when
Sweet harp-like voices thrill around,
Above the organ's thunder sound,

Die faintly off, then soar again :
So let us praise our famous men.

As lulled by each mysterious note,

On vanished hopes and hours we dwell,
Low murmurs through the music float,
As of some murmuring ocean shell.
From the pale distance of the dead
A faint breath wavers to and fro,
Like unforgotten fragrance shed
On May morns long ago.

Oxford, full many a child of thine,

We yearn for now with hearts forlorn,
Who poured away fresh youth, like wine,
And sunk, with noble toils outworn.

Unchanging now, by day or night,
Before these dim and agèd eyes,

For ever young, for ever bright,
Our early lost arise.

Herbert, the loved of all, whose smile
Upon each memory lingers yet,
Like sun-light, hovering for a while
After the sun himself hath set.
Elgin, who held his life alway

A thing to spend for England's use;
Who left in death another ray

Round the proud name of Bruce.

Lewis, the calm and just; he too,

Through Fate's dark void has passed afar,
Unselfish, loyal, wise, and true,

And stainless ever as a star.

Last that great sire's great son,' who when
The steams of blood choked Indian air,
And fear made others cruel, then

Rose strong enough to spare.

Now full of hope, though sad, we meet

;

The silent place of one to fill
Whose knightly heart has ceased to beat,
Whose silver voice for earth is still;
Our Derby, to new work gone forth,
We here must honour as we can :
But grateful toilers of the North 2

Praise best that famous man.

1 Lord Canning.

2 Alluding to the late Lord Derby's exertions during the Lancashire cotton famine.