For Mansfield

Flavius Covaci (English, 2022)

For its chiming black gates welcomed us all in when the night became too dark. For those warm rooms held us tight when we felt like falling apart, for its porters are full of smiles, for the love we share towards our College cats

could overflow the Nile. Because constellations above our Quad have left every one of us beguiled, and don’t we all remember that summer day when drowsing on the grass unfroze our inner child? For the family we found

along the way: the divine friends that glowed dazzlingly with the ephemeral power of play. Recall those ridiculous conversations over Sunday’s carvery, the eyebags that came with late nights and early lectures,

the undying awe inspired by our Chapel’s architecture. Picture once more the Library whose swirly ceiling transported you out of the essay crisis and into a red oasis of serenity. For each memory

is a treasured thread in the intricate brocade of your time here with topsy-turvy Gormley and Mrs Roosevelt. For this is a place of refuge housing all our non-conformist values, for Mansfield – for letting us be.