The river gleams like glass

Along its banks royal jacarandas

Make their purple pledge of summer.

Sealed in my steel cocoon I spin along

Past offices and shops, the ABC

And green suburbia

Until at last I see

The sandstone towers of academia,

The University of Queensland.

Scene of my part time endeavours

For year after striving year

And after all, for what?

The piece of paper which I framed?

But it was worth it, after all

Even if only to discover the works of

Gerard Manley Hopkins.