Poetry Review – John Betjeman – The Varsity Students Rag

Tweet

A scathing 1932 verse criticising the extreme drunken rampages made by students at some British universities, especially Oxford and Cambridge. The narrator enjoyed some rag-week jamborees and even gets one going himself in Putney, London. It begins jolly enough with drunken students merrily playing with toy balloons, and having fun, but back at the college the next rag week drinking session leads to extreme acts of mindless vandalism that causes the destruction of many priceless works of art. The poem ends by declaring that only the old school tie distinguishes the Varsity graduate from an outright cad, implying that there is often no difference at all. The poem was turned into a great song and dance routine about middle class decadence in a short BBC film based on Betjeman poetry, called Late Flowering Lust. The whole film is on Youtube but this is just the Varsity poem dance sequence, sung by Nigel Hawthorne. Arthur Chappell