The School-Boy and the Monitor

At play on Thames’s verdant side

A school boy fell into the tide,

Where providentially there stood

A willow, bending o’er the flood.

Buoy’d on its branch, he floating lay,

The monitor pass’d by that way.

The lad entreats his life to save:

The Don replies with aspect grave,

“Sirrah, what business had you there?

How vain is all our watchful care!

You never heed a word we say;

Your disobedience you shall pay!”

“First,” says the boy, “pray stretch your hand:

I’ll hear you when I come to land.”

This is for those, with vain parade

Who give advice, instead of aid.