“And now thy town, O Cambridge! strikes the sight
  Of the beholders with confus’d delight;
  Thy green campaigns wide open to the view,
  And buildings where bright youth their fame pursue. 
  Blest village! on whose plains united glows,
  A vast, confus’d magnificence of shows. 
  Where num’rous crowds of different colours blend,
  Thick as the trees which from the hills ascend: 
  Or as the grass which shoots in verdant spires,
  Or stars which dart thro’ natures realms their fires.

 “How am I fir’d with a profuse delight,
  When round the yard I roll my ravish’d sight! 
  From the high casements how the ladies show! 
  And scatter glory on the crowds below. 
  From sash to sash the lovely lightening plays
  And blends their beauties in a radiant blaze. 
  So when the noon of night the earth invades
  And o’er the landskip spreads her silent shades. 
  In heavens high vault the twinkling stars appear,
  And with gay glory’s light the gleemy sphere. 
  From their bright orbs a flame of splendors shows,
  And all around th’ enlighten’d ether glows.

 “Soon as huge heaps have delug’d all the plains,
  Of tawny damsels, mixt with simple swains,
  Gay city beau’s, grave matrons and coquats,
  Bully’s and cully’s, clergymen and wits. 
  The thing which first the num’rous crowd employs,
  Is by a breakfast to begin their joys. 
  While wine, which blushes in a crystal glass,
  Streams down in floods, and paints their glowing face. 
  And now the time approaches when the bell,
  With dull continuance tolls a solemn knell. 
  Numbers of blooming youth in black array
  Adorn the yard, and gladden all the day. 
  In two strait lines they instantly divide,
  While each beholds his partner on th’ opposing side,
  Then slow, majestick, walks the learned head,
  The senate follow with a solemn tread,
  Next Levi’s tribe in reverend order move,
  Whilst the uniting youth the show improve. 
  They glow in long procession till they come,
  Near to the portals of the sacred dome;
  Then on a sudden open fly the doors,
  The leader enters, then the croud thick pours. 
  The temple in a moment feels its freight,
  And cracks beneath its vast unwieldy weight,
  So when the threatning Ocean roars around
  A place encompass’d with a lofty mound,
  If some weak part admits the raging waves,
  It flows resistless, and the city laves;
  Till underneath the waters ly the tow’rs,
  Which menac’d with their height the heav’nly pow’rs.

 “The work begun with pray’r, with modest pace,
  A youth advancing mounts the desk with grace,
  To all the audience sweeps a circling bow,
  Then from his lips ten thousand graces flow. 
  The next that comes, a learned thesis reads,
  The question states, and then a war succeeds. 
  Loud major, minor, and the consequence,
  Amuse the crowd, wide-gaping at their fence. 
  Who speaks the loudest is with them the best,
  And impudence for learning is confest.