'A Modern Wersion of the Great Poem A new version of Gray's famous "Elegy" was produced recently at] Home when the Oxford Union Society held a debate, the motion of which was, "That this House would rather have taken Quebec than, written Gray's "Elegy." The "aes-theres," opposing, were lead by, Father Ronald Knox, an ex-president of the Union, and the "hearties" by General Sir Tan Hamilton.
Father Knox, reports the "Morning Post," spoke-against the motion, and gave his version of the first stanzas of the Elegy, as it might have been written by an inferior imitator of Mr. Osbert Sitwell:
Bong. That filthy bell agai With its ridiculous mauve cadence reminds me of a village funeral, With mates in top hats sitting under Moo, moo." Oh, Lord, those cows! The whole muddy lane Lord that fy imaday tenet With hindquarters Thank Ge ploog Theme, anyhow With in red, hairy face: Going home to beat his wife, beat her
ait darks sey by the Tode of in {farnily, just me.
ther Knox' continuing, then said that the "owl" stanzas could be written up on more or less the Like"n temporary stuffing in one's teeth crawls lasciviously round the tower, Stretching out ity dirty fingers towards the owl, Bat The onl doer hot worry about it: Its resenting my presence the absence 1 tke colonel in my club away his favourite hal el Oh you colonel of an owl! Taball sit here exactly as tong Tike, Boo. Boo. Boo."
The speaker added that the Elegy had to be written when it was written by the man who wrote it. It was enough for our day that, some minor poet should turn out a triolet written in a suburban crematorium.
The motion was lost by 902 votes to 134.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.