1. In many a monastery I have lived, and there
Mingled youth’s rapture with the elders’ knowledge;

2. On pavements where the loitering scholars throng
I bowed me humbly to some reverend sage;

3. The laughing breeze of May breathed fragrance round
And fluttered lightly each wen’s whiskered lip;

4. Then shone on me an eye with beckoning lash,
And waked my heart to childhood’s wantonness.

5. The priest discoursed exactly as he would,
Singing his incantations o’er and o’er;

6. Then rang their vesper chime upon my ear,
And called me back from rapture wandering far.

7. On such they feast within those holy walls,
Quaffing their wine and eating their ham forbidden