400 Years in 400 Words
ARTICLE |
A poem by undergraduate Rohit Ghosh (2022, English Language and Literature) written for the 400th anniversary edition of The Pink Times.
400 Years in 400 Words
I. “Pink” is the first word that comes to mind,
With “Panther” following suit, of course.
“Bleed pink! Bleed pink!”: four centuries chime
Of Pembrokians, at full force!
II.“Enter!”
It is as if the Plodge speaks!
I wave good Rodge, and enter,
Enter:
four Quads, a café,
A chapel, a Plib,
A Mac and a Schlid,
Enter: home.
III. Melodies fill the Pembrokian air:
A symphony of histories,
A mixtape of arias:
First comes the hymns of 1624:
Solemn, liturgical, serious, patient.
The crest of reformation reverberates:
The discordance of civil strife to follow.
Then the 18th Century sings of sweet sensibility
Simmering into drawing-room chatter.
Underneath the sonorous serenade?
Reality crashes: a din of rakes and fops,
Dancing, raving, drinking – lots
Pre-empting the modern beats of a bop…
Then the 1900s starts to sing
Or yell of our fellows wrapped into the overbearing orchestra of history.
Amidst the wars hot and cold,
Traditions new meet traditions old,
And diversified voices enrich the old all-pale-male drone.
In joins the Present: do you hear it, growing louder?
The tom-tom of jazz, bounding from the bar?
That 1624 choir singing Angels, instead?
Drinking songs past and present sharing a pint, arm-in-arm?
And Future, clearing its throat?
IV. 'Brilliant Minds'
Oh many minds have graced our college space!
Iambic rhythm feels a worthy pace
To match the lot of Johnson, Tolkien, Shenstone
Agbabi, Smithson, Kaveny, Blackstone.
To brilliant minds long gone I write this rhyme,
And minds to come, like then, and for all of time!
V. Rowers, rowers, rowing their boats,
Gently down the stream…
That’s all the mention rowers get in this poem.
VI. Otherwise, a a word to our clubs –
To PCFC, GayCR, all acronyms we have –
To singing, choirs, and jazz –
To gardens, flowers so ornately kept –
To student productions (I laughed and wept) –
To the JCR, standing strong –
To the ones who gel it along!
VII. 'King James, 1624: a limerick'
There once was a man called King James,
Who horseback to Oxford he came.
From good ol’ Will Herbert
(Not lemons and sherbert)
Did “Pembroke” (once “Broadgates”) find name!
VIII. Even now, in the four hunder’,
I cannot help wonder
If our founders could even ponder
Where we are now!
As I close my pithy rhyme
Let us chant – one more time
For four more centuries chime:
“Bleed pink! Bleed pink!”, loud!
by Rohit Ghosh