Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, TO HIS TEACHER, by ANNE GOODWIN WINSLOW


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

TO HIS TEACHER, by                    
First Line: Dear humanist, this roaring street
Last Line: Who gravely walks with you.
Subject(s): History; Modern Man; Historians


Dear Humanist, this roaring street
Is far enough from your still garden close;
And here we move on hastier feet;
Much like the feet of those
Who fear to miss what they pursue.
The same old Beauty, as no doubt you guess,
But moving with unwonted liveliness,
And, like the ladies on the avenue,
All given just now to changeful thoughts of dress.

I find on every hand this tendency
To lay new stress upon the new;
The past has very decently
Interred its dead for us;
We cultivate the curious,
And rather seek to leave behind
Those universal points of view
That always had a charm for you
Who loiter down more tranquil ways,
Still musing on the ancient days
And with the eternal years in mind.

From the becoming flux of things,
Our livelier inspiration springs;
And while we do not doubt
That men have had a common history,
We hold that the immediate Me
Is art's concern, and still unique.
Our effort must be to express
An egocentric consciousness
That leaves tradition absolutely out,
And never blurs originality
With echoes of conventions not its own,
Or derivation's tiresome overtone. . . .

And yet, sometimes there comes to me
The thought of the brave revels that you hold --
Those feasts where new and old
Make up one gallant company;
And then I find myself remembering
A bit of classic genealogy --
A tale so ancient that it may be true --
Which says the Muses did not spring
From the young Inspiration that we woo,
Nor any pert Originality,
But all are daughters of that Memory
Who gravely walks with you.





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