An Old Man's Thought of School

per.00133.003

AN OLD MAN'S THOUGHT OF SCHOOL.¹

[The following poem was recited personally by th​ author Saturday afternoon, October 31, at th​ inauguration of the fine new Cooper Publi​ School, Camden, New Jersey:]² 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? This Union multiform, with all its dazzling hopes 
  and terrible fears? Look deeper, nearer, earlier far—provide ahead— 
  counsel in time; Not to your verdicts of election days—not to your 
  voters look, To girlhood, boyhood look—the teacher and the 
  school. WALT. WHITMAN.

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Notes

1. Reprinted in Two Rivulets (1876). [back]

2. The editor's note preceding the poem includes several typographical errors: "th" for "the" in two places and "publi" for "public." [back]