Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, OLD SCHOOLHOUSE, by RICHARD EUGENE BURTON



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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

OLD SCHOOLHOUSE, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: There broods the pathos of a time long past
Last Line: That lit the players in the long-ago.
Subject(s): Faces; Life; Love; Past; Schools; Time; Students


THERE broods the pathos of a time long past
In every nook and every grass-grown way;
The fences lean as tired out at last,
That once pent in so many lads at play.

The doors gape open, but one harks in vain
For human voices or for hurrying feet;
The rusty weather-cock creaks out that rain
Or days uncloudy come, or snow and sleet.

The gables droop, the windows, staring-eyed,
Do seem to mock one pitying the place;
A thousand birds and flowers long have tried
To put upon the scene a summer face.

But spite of them, a silence wide and deep
Clings round the corners, sits on every stone:
It is a spot for lingering and sleep,
For guessing other fortunes than your own.

I people all the playground up and down
With rushing forms and sound of laughter high;
I watch the light of evening like a crown
Upon the walls, till pales the western sky.

I wonder how those sturdy limbs have fared
That since have wandered far as east and west;
I wonder who from sorrows have been spared,
I strive to read the hearts that have been blessed;

And so my love must follow, one by one,
The life of each, and all its changes know, . . .
Until the faces fade, as did the sun
That lit the players in the long-ago.





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