The School House
Author: Seamus Kavanagh
fropm "Reflections in Rhyme

The School House
Author: Seamus Kavanagh
fropm "Reflections in Rhyme

Standing by the schoolhouse
with its walls of granite grey
memories come flooding back
was it really only yesterday

The silence it is broken
by sounds from other years,
of voices long forgotten
Listen - can't you hear!

Through an open window
carried on the wing of time
hear the lilting tones of innocence
recite a nursery rhyme.

See the young lad running,
running wild and free
and the girl with the red ribbon
who meant the world to me.

Solid desk with names engraved
where we learn=t to write and spell
with a nib bent out of shape
from exploring an inkwell.

Across bog and field they came
in summer heat and winter snow
and scampered 'cross a wooden plank
where rushing waters flow.

And on a frosty morning
when smoke clouds filled the sky
'The master's in, the master's in'
would be the warning cry.

Listen to the roll call
but I'm aggrieved to say
the master and so many more
won't be 'anseo' today.