Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE OLD SCHOOLHOUSE (1), by ANONYMOUS



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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE OLD SCHOOLHOUSE (1), by                    
First Line: "I sat an hour today, john"
Last Line: The faces that were gone
Subject(s): Classmates;schools;time; Schoolmates;students


I sat an hour to-day, John,
Beside the old brook-stream, --
Where we were school-boys in old time,
When manhood was a dream;
The brook is choked with fallen leaves,
The pond is dried away,
I scarce believe that you would know
The dear old place to-day.

The school-house is no more, John, --
Beneath our locust-trees,
The wild rose by the window's side
No more waves in the breeze;
The scattered stones look desolate;
The sod they rested on
Has been plowed up by stranger hands,
Since you and I were gone.

The chestnut-tree is dead, John --
And what is sadder now,
The grapevine of that same old swing
Hangs on the withered bough.
I read our names upon the bark,
And found the pebbles rare
Laid up beneath the hollow side,
As we piled them there.

Beneath the grass-grown bank, John, --
I looked for our old spring,
That bubbled down the alder-path
Three paces from the swing;
The rushes grow upon the brink,
The pool is black and bare,
And not a fool for many a day,
It seems, has trodden there.

I took the old blind road, John,
That wandered up the hill, --
'Tis darker that it used to be,
And seems so lone and still;
The birds yet sing upon the boughs
Where once the sweet grapes hung,
But not a voice of human kind
Where all our voices rung.

I sat me on the fence, John,
That lies as in old time,
The same half-panel in the path
We used so oft to climb, --
And though how, o'er the bars of life,
Our playmates had passed on,
And left me counting on the spot
The faces that were gone.





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