With a Copy of Shakespeare’s Sonnets on Leaving College by Alan Seeger is a reflective and tender lyric poem that captures a young scholar’s poignant farewell to the world of learning as he steps into the uncertainties of life beyond college. Framed as a tribute to the immortal Shakespeare, the poem delicately expresses gratitude for the companionship and emotional richness the sonnets have offered during his formative years. Seeger treats the volume not merely as a book, but as a cherished confidant—one that has shaped his tastes, inspired his dreams, and fortified his soul. Written in elegant verse, the poem echoes the sonnet tradition itself, embodying a refined reverence for art, friendship, and the bittersweet passage of youth into adulthood.
With a Copy of Shakespeares Sonnets on Leaving College by Alan Seeger
Weighing the yield of these four faded years,
If any ask what fruit seems loveliest,
What lasting gold among the garnered ears, —
Ah, then I’ll say what hours I had of thine,
Therein I reaped Time’s richest revenue,
Read in thy text the sense of David’s line,
Take then his book, laden with mine own love
As flowers made sweeter by deep-drunken rain,
That when years sunder and between us move
Wide waters, and less kindly bonds constrain,
Thou may’st turn here, dear boy, and reading see
Some part of what thy friend once felt for thee.
