Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


CHANGE OF HEART by WALT MASON

First Line: MY TEACHER, WHEN I WENT TO SCHOOL, WOULD
Last Line: "BY HECK!"" AND I REMARKED, ""GEE WHIZ!"
Subject(s): EMOTIONS; HEARTS;

MY teacher, when I went to school, would lam me with a pole, when I defied his
tyrant rule, which jarred and chafed my soul. I'd mutter, when he left on me
full many a wale and bruise, "When I'm grown up I'd hate to be in that blamed
teacher's shoes! When I'm a man, unless he's dead, for all my grief and pain,
I'll surely punch his old bald head, and split his face in twain." The years
passed by, and I became a man of famous might; I had a great and stalwart frame,

my whiskers were a sight. And so I sought that teacher out; I met him at his
door, and said to him, "I was, old scout, a pest in days of yore. When I recall

the fiendish tricks I played, with ribald glee, I wonder that you used small
sticks when you were pounding me. I was a wicked little dub, who riled you all
day long; you should have used a big spiked club, to show me I was wrong." The
teacher fell upon my neck, and I reclined on his, and through his tears he said,

"By heck!" and I remarked, "Gee whiz!"



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