1. ۱AN old man’s thought of School;
2. ۲An old man, gathering youthful memories and blooms, that youth itself cannot.
3. ۳
4. ۴Now only do I know you!
5. ۵O fair auroral skies! O morning dew upon the grass!
6. ۶
7. ۷And these I see—these sparkling eyes,
8. ۸These stores of mystic meaning—these young lives,
9. ۹Building, equipping, like a fleet of ships—immortal ships!
10. ۱۰Soon to sail out over the measureless seas,
11. ۱۱On the Soul’s voyage.
12. ۱۲
13. ۱۳Only a lot of boys and girls?
14. ۱۴Only the tiresome spelling, writing, ciphering classes?
15. ۱۵Only a Public School?
16. ۱۶
17. ۱۷Ah more—infinitely more;
18. ۱۸(As George Fox rais’d his warning cry, “Is it this pile of brick and
19. ۱۹ mortar—these dead floors, windows, rails—you call the church?
20. ۲۰Why this is not the church at all—the Church is living, ever living Souls.”)
21. ۲۱
22. ۲۲And you, America,
23. ۲۳Cast you the real reckoning for your present?
24. ۲۴The lights and shadows of your future—good or evil?
25. ۲۵To girlhood, boyhood look—the Teacher and the School.