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Life on the Deckle Edge

Poetry Friday: 1800s Teacher Humor for Mary Lee!

 

Greetings, Poetry Lovers - Happy to pop back in during a crazy-busy month to celebrate our wonderful, talented, generous, tenacious Mary Lee Hahn!

 

Congratulations on your retirement from teaching, Mary Lee.  Can't wait to learn of your next adventures.

 

When you become a bit wistful about the classroom, perhaps the following poem will be good medicine.  I found it in one of my old favorites in my studio, CROWN JEWELS – OR GEMS OF LITERATURE, ART AND MUSIC … (and the rest of the title is about three miles long.)  This particular volume hails from 1887, compiled by Henry Davenport Northrop, D.D., and published by L. P. Miller & Co. (Chicago and Philadelphia).

 

No author is credited with this poem; if anyone knows who wrote it, let me know and I'll give credit where credit's due, a century and a quarter-plus later!

 

 

          TEACHING PUBLIC SCHOOL

 

Forty little urchins,

          Coming through the door,

Pushing, crowding, making

          A tremendous roar.

          Why don't you keep quiet?

       Can't you keep the rule? –

Bless me, this is pleasant,

          Teaching public school!

 

Forty little pilgrims

          On the road to fame;

If they fail to reach it,

          Who will be to blame?

High and lowly stations –

          Birds of every feather –

On a common level

          Here are brought together.

 

Dirty little faces,

          Loving little hearts,

Eyes brimful of mischief,

          Skilled in all its arts.

That's a precious darling!

          What are you about?

"May I pass the water?"

          "Please, may I go out?"

 

Boots and shoes are shuffling,

          Slates and books are rattling,

and in a corner yonder

          Two pugilists are battling:

Others cutting didos –

          What a botheration!

No wonder we grow crusty

          From such association!

 

Anxious parent drops in,

          Merely to inquire

Why his olive branches

          Do not shoot up higher;

Says he wants his children

          To mind their p's and q's,

And hopes their brilliant talents

          Will not be abused.

 

Spelling, reading, writing,

          Putting up the young ones;

Fuming, scolding, fighting,

          Spurring on the dumb ones;

Gymnasts, vocal music –

          How the heart rejoices

When the singer comes to

          Cultivate the voices!

 

Institute attending,

          Making our reports,

Giving object lessons,

          Class drill of all sorts;

Reading dissertations,

          Feeling like a fool –

Oh, the untold blessing

          Of the public school!

 

 

Dedicating this find of a poem to Mary Lee and to all the teachers out there, especially after THIS surreal and challenging year!  Kind of heartening to know teaching ancestors were going through some of the same things, isn't it? 

 

And a tip of the hat to my third-grade-teacher-daughter Morgan, as today is the last day of class for her students this year.  Whew!

 

One more tidbit for Mary Lee, again without attribution, but tucked into JEWELS FOR THE HOUSEHOLD; SELECTIONS OF THOUGHT AND ANECDOTE, FOR FAMILY READING by Tryon Edwards, D. D. (Hartford:  Case, Lockwood & Co., 1866).

 

          CHEERFULNESS AND WISDOM

 

So I saw that despondency was death, and flung my burden from me,

and, lightened by that effort, I was raised above the world:

Yea, in the strangeness of my vision, I seemed to soar on wings,

And the names they gave my wings were cheerfulness and wisdom.

 

Soar on, Mary Lee! #MarvelousMaryLee #PoemsforMaryLee

 

This week's Roundup is hosted by the lovely Christie at Wondering and Wandering, where you can find out more about the Mary Lee poetry celebration, and other Poetry Friday posts, too.

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