4. _Her Henry's holy shade_. Henry the Sixth, founder of the college. Cf. _The Bard_, ii. 3: "the meek usurper's holy head;" Shakes. _Rich. III._ v. 1: "Holy King Henry;" _Id._ iv. 4: "When holy Harry died." The king, though never canonized, was regarded as a saint. 5. _And ye_. Ye "towers;" that is, of Windsor Castle. Cf. Thomson, _Summer_, 1412: "And now to where Majestic Windsor lifts his princely brow." 8. _Whose turf, whose shade, whose flowers among_. "That is, the _turf_ of whose _lawn_, the _shade_ of whose _groves_, the _flowers_ of whose mead" (Wakefield). Cf. _Hamlet_, iii. 1: "The courtier's, soldier's, scholar's eye, tongue, sword." In Anglo-Saxon and Early English prepositions were often placed after their objects. In the Elizabethan period the transposition of the weaker prepositions was not allowed, except in the compounds _whereto_, _herewith_, etc. (cf. the Latin _quocum_, _secum_), but the longer forms were still, though rarely, transposed (see _Shakes. Gr._ 203); and in more recent writers this latter license is extremely rare. Even the use of the preposition after the relative, which was very common in Shakespeare's day, is now avoided, except in colloquial style. 9. _The hoary Thames_. The river-god is pictured in the old classic fashion. Cf. Milton, _Lycidas_, 103: "Next Camus, reverend sire, went footing slow." See also quotation from Dryden in note on 21 below. [Illustration: THE RIVER-GOD TIBER.] 10. _His silver-winding way_. Cf. Thomson, _Summer_, 1425: "The matchless vale of Thames, Fair-winding up," etc. 12. _Ah, fields belov'd in vain!_ Mitford remarks that this expression has been considered obscure, and adds the following explanation: "The poem is written in the character of one who contemplates this life as a scene of misfortune and sorrow, from whose fatal power the brief sunshine of youth is supposed to be exempt. The fields are _beloved_ as the scene of youthful pleasures, and as affording the promise of happiness to come; but this promise never was fulfilled. Fate, which dooms man to misery, soon overclouded these opening prospects of delight. That is in vain beloved which does not realize the expectations it held out. No fruit but that of disappointment has followed the blossoms of a thoughtless hope." 13. _Where once my careless childhood stray'd_. Wakefield cites Thomson, _Winter_, 6: "with frequent foot Pleas'd have I, in my cheerful morn of life, When nurs'd by careless Solitude I liv'd, And sung of Nature with unceasing joy, Pleas'd have I wander'd," etc.