Classic and Contemporary Poetry
SIC FRATRES HELENAE, by ALFRED DENNIS GODLEY Poet's Biography First Line: O where is the pastor and master Last Line: Instructors of schools! Alternate Author Name(s): Godley, A. D. Subject(s): Teaching & Teachers; Educators; Professors | ||||||||
O WHERE is the pastor and master Who used to enlighten the mind? Protect him, O Pollux and Castor, And grant him a favouring wind! From prose and from verse and translation Afar has that pedagogue flown, He is spending his Easter Vacation With Lunn and Perowne. From Harrow and Rugby and Clifton, Released from the birch and the boy, The teachers of youth are adrift on The waves that will waft them to Troy, To Athens, of cities the fairest, Aegina, bright gem of the sea, -- Dear land of the Augment and Aorist, Of On and of Mh. Not thus, with a Bradshaw and Murray, The cit who's constructed his pile Surveys in a desperate hurry The mummies and marts of the Nile: Not thus does the Philistine roamer, Conducted by Cook in a gang, Attempt to elucidate Homer With Butcher and Lang: Let such with a handbook provided Revisit each classical spot: But these by their culture are guided (At most with a Liddell and Scott): Untainted by cribs and by versions, By books that are branded of Bohn, Are those who are sent on excursions By Lunn and Perowne. From classical works that they're pat in, On viewing Parnassus its peak, They'll quote the original Latin (If not the original Greek): What readings they'll cite from their Cobets At sight of Taygetus' crags, Saluting Mycenae with 'gobbets' And Tiryns with tags! When'er o'er the spaces of ocean From Cyclad to Cyclad they gad (Still mindful that phrases of motion Omit, with an island, the ad), In fancy they'll dream of the classes At home which they nurture with tips, And Poinfloiboio Qalasshj Will leap to their lips! O possible picnics on Pelion With readings from Grote or Macan, O sights of antiquities Melian, O pratings of pot and of pan! O dread and despair of the digger Who sees them arriving in swarms, In hopes of abstracting a figure -- To show to their Forms! Return to the tasks that recall you From surges and shores of the East, Your market professional value By travel distinctly increased: 'Mid grammars we grope and we grovel, We rot in conventional rules, -- O heal us with views that are novel, Instructors of Schools! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE CORRESPONDENCE-SCHOOL INSTRUCTOR SAYS GOODBYE TO HIS POETRY STUDENTS by GALWAY KINNELL GRATITUDE TO OLD TEACHERS by ROBERT BLY TWO RAMAGES FOR OLD MASTERS by ROBERT BLY ON FLUNKING A NICE BOY OUT OF SCHOOL by JOHN CIARDI HER MONOLOGUE OF DARK CREPE WITH EDGES OF LIGHT by NORMAN DUBIE OF POLITICS, & ART by NORMAN DUBIE SEVERAL MEASURES FOR THE LITTLE LOST by NORMAN DUBIE A DIALOGUE ON ETHICS by ALFRED DENNIS GODLEY A HANDBOOK TO HOMER by ALFRED DENNIS GODLEY A NEW DIALOGUE OF THE DEAD; ODYSSEUS AND ARISTOTLE by ALFRED DENNIS GODLEY |
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