• It seems a hundred years or more
    Since I, with note-book, ink and pen,
    In cap and gown, first trod the floor
    Which I have often trod since then;
    Yet well do I remember when
    With fifty other fond fanatics,
    I sought delights beyond my ken,
    The deep delights of Mathematics.

    I knew that two and two made four,
    I felt that five times two were ten,
    But, as for all profounder lore,
    The robin redbreast or the wren,
    The sparrow, whether c**k or hen,
    Knew quite as much about Quadratics,
    Was less confused by x and n,
    The deep delights of Mathematics.

    The Asses' Bridge I passed not o'er,
    I floundered in the noisome fen
    Which lies behind it and before;
    I wandered in the gloomy glen
    Where Surds and Factors have their den.
    But when I saw the pit of Statics,
    I said Good-bye, Farewell, Amen!
    The deep delighst of Mathematics.

    O Bejants! blessed, beardless men,
    Who strive with Euclid in your attics,
    For worlds I would not taste again
    The deep delights of Mathematics.