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The Waster's Presentiment

Murray, Robert Fuller
1I shall be spun. There is a voice within
2    Which tells me plainly I am all undone;
3For though I toil not, neither do I spin,
4          I shall be spun.
5April approaches. I have not begun
6    Schwegler or Mackintosh, nor will begin
7Those lucid works till April 21.
8So my degree I do not hope to win,
9    For not by ways like mine degrees are won;
10And though, to please my uncle, I go in,
11          I shall be spun.

Notes

1] spun: failed (OED, "spin," v., 13). Back to Line
3] "Consider the lilies, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these" (Luke 12.27). Back to Line
6] Schwegler or Mackintosh: perhaps Albert Schwegler (1819-57), German historian of philosophy, and Sir James Mackintosh (1765-1832), modern historian. Back to Line