During Head Boy Ollie's address at this year's Speech Day, he recited a few lines from the poem Thoughts on Seeing Campbell College From A Distance which was submitted in the 1922 Campbellian magazine by students WSJ and WNL. Ollie remarked on his first impression of the school, seeing it in the distance from the Craigantlet Hills. We have reproduced the poem here for your interest.

We wish all our leavers the best of luck with this next chapter to come and hope you don't wait too long to come back and see us!

Thoughts on Seeing Campbell College From A Distance

T’was in a pensive mood I stayed,

Near Campbell, through a woodland glade;

When, through the foliage green

That rustled in the evening breeze,

Clear rising ‘mid th’ encircling trees

Her brick-red towers were seen.

What memories dear this sight recalls,

Her stately rooms her pillared halls,

Her fields so wide, so fair.

Those cherished haunts, those leafy bowers

Where oft we spent our boyhood hours,

Untrammeled by dull care.

Hours lost, now never to return

When we, unfledged, did strive to learn

The bigger game of life,

And so prepare ourselves to meet

The hardships of this world replete

With misery and strife.

For hardened by the stress of toil,

So many struggle mid the broil

Of mercenary hate.

O’erwhelmed by the lures of gold,

They labour hard, with hearts turned cold,

Self-weavers of their fate.

But as I gaze the sun sinks low,

Across the sky there steals a glow:

The evening fades to night;

The darkness overshadows all:

Dimly I see the chimneys tall

Bathed in the sun’s last light.

So peaceful, calm this evening hour,

Such be to me Life’s closing dower ­–

“A quiet blissful end.

My recompense, some work well done,

Some comrade helped, these treasures won –

   Honour, Regret, a Friend".

W.S.J and W.N.L  1922