Walt Whitman - An Old Man's Thought of School

[For the Inauguration of a Public School, Camden, New Jersey, 1874]

 

An old man's thought of school,
An old man gathering youthful memories and blooms that youth itself cannot.

 

Now only do I know you,
O fair auroral skies--O morning dew upon the grass!

 

And these I see, these sparkling eyes,
These stores of mystic meaning, these young lives,
Building, equipping like a fleet of ships, immortal ships,
Soon to sail out over the measureless seas,
On the soul's voyage.

 

Only a lot of boys and girls?
Only the tiresome spelling, writing, ciphering classes?
Only a public school?

 

Ah more, infinitely more;
(As George Fox rais'd his warning cry, "Is it this pile of brick and
mortar, these dead floors, windows, rails, you call the church?
Why this is not the church at all--the church is living, ever living
souls.")

 

And you America,
Cast you the real reckoning for your present?
The lights and shadows of your future, good or evil?
To girlhood, boyhood look, the teacher and the school.

Submited by

Monday, April 11, 2011 - 00:07

Poesia Consagrada :

No votes yet

Walt Whitman

Walt Whitman's picture
Offline
Title: Membro
Last seen: 14 years 9 weeks ago
Joined: 04/08/2011
Posts:
Points: 849

Add comment

Login to post comments

other contents of Walt Whitman

Topic Title Replies Views Last Postsort icon Language
Poesia Consagrada/General Walt Whitman Poems : Pensive and Faltering 0 3.064 04/11/2011 - 00:51 English
Poesia Consagrada/General Walt Whitman Poems : A Paumanok Picture 0 2.935 04/11/2011 - 00:50 English
Poesia Consagrada/General Walt Whitman Poems : Patroling Barnegat 0 3.490 04/11/2011 - 00:48 English
Poesia Consagrada/General Walt Whitman Poems : Passage to India 0 4.053 04/11/2011 - 00:47 English
Poesia Consagrada/General Walt Whitman - The Pallid Wreath 0 2.953 04/11/2011 - 00:43 English
Poesia Consagrada/General Walt Whitman - The Ox-Tamer 0 2.581 04/11/2011 - 00:38 English
Poesia Consagrada/General Walt Whitman - Over the Carnage Rose Prophetic a Voice 0 4.673 04/11/2011 - 00:37 English
Poesia Consagrada/General Walt Whitman - Out of the Rolling Ocean the Crowd 0 3.008 04/11/2011 - 00:36 English
Poesia Consagrada/General Walt Whitman - Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking 0 4.551 04/11/2011 - 00:35 English
Poesia Consagrada/General Walt Whitman - Outlines for a Tomb [G. P., Buried 1870] 0 9.048 04/11/2011 - 00:32 English
Poesia Consagrada/General Walt Whitman - Out from Behind This Mask [To Confront a Portrait] 0 2.918 04/11/2011 - 00:31 English
Poesia Consagrada/General Walt Whitman - Our Old Feuillage 0 4.054 04/11/2011 - 00:28 English
Poesia Consagrada/General Walt Whitman - O Star of France [1870-71] 0 2.833 04/11/2011 - 00:25 English
Poesia Consagrada/General Walt Whitman - Osceola 0 3.752 04/11/2011 - 00:22 English
Poesia Consagrada/General Walt Whitman - On the Beach at Night Alone 0 3.867 04/11/2011 - 00:21 English
Poesia Consagrada/General Walt Whitman - On, on the Same, Ye Jocund Twain! 0 2.858 04/11/2011 - 00:19 English
Poesia Consagrada/General Walt Whitman - On Journeys Through the States 0 3.520 04/11/2011 - 00:16 English
Poesia Consagrada/General Walt Whitman - One Hour to Madness and Joy 0 2.936 04/11/2011 - 00:15 English
Poesia Consagrada/General Walt Whitman - Once I Pass'd Through a Populous City 0 3.130 04/11/2011 - 00:14 English
Poesia Consagrada/General Walt Whitman - On the Beach at Night 0 4.450 04/11/2011 - 00:12 English
Poesia Consagrada/General Walt Whitman - O Me! O Life! 0 4.930 04/11/2011 - 00:11 English
Poesia Consagrada/General Walt Whitman - O Magnet-South 0 3.834 04/11/2011 - 00:09 English
Poesia Consagrada/General Walt Whitman - An Old Man's Thought of School 0 4.335 04/11/2011 - 00:07 English
Poesia Consagrada/General Walt Whitman - O Living Always, Always Dying 0 3.624 04/11/2011 - 00:05 English
Poesia Consagrada/General Walt Whitman - Old War-Dreams 0 3.475 04/11/2011 - 00:03 English