Megalong Valley Public School
School is out for the summer, ready for the winter.
Words to walk with:
Afternoon in School - The Last Lesson by DH Lawrence
When will the bell ring, and end this weariness?
How long have they tugged the leash, and strained apart
My pack of unruly hounds: I cannot start
Them again on a quarry of knowledge they hate to hunt,
I can haul them and urge them no more.
No more can I endure to bear the brunt
Of the books that lie out on the desks: a full three score
Of several insults of blotted pages and scrawl
Of slovenly work that they have offered me.
I am sick, and tired more than any thrall
Upon the woodstacks working weariedly.
And shall I take
The last dear fuel and heap it on my soul
Till I rouse my will like a fire to consume
Their dross of indifference, and burn the scroll
Of their insults in punishment? - I will not!
I will not waste myself to embers for them,
Not all for them shall the fires of my life be hot,
For myself a heap of ashes of weariness, till sleep
Shall have raked the embers clear: I will keep
Some of my strength for myself, for if I should sell
It all for them, I should hate them -
- I will sit and wait for the bell.
I would think this to be teacher burn-out.
ReplyDeleteLove the shot of all the hooks. Instantly flashes me back to my teaching days ... daze ...
It’s been a long time since I’ve been near a school. Your photo hooked me right back to primary school as if it were yesterday.
ReplyDeleteI like all the straight lines juxtaposed with the curves of the hooks.
They took me back to my first day of school in 1959 when my Mum helped me hang my brand new straw school hat and hand-me-down school port (yes I am a Queenslander) on a hook on a verandah just like that.
ReplyDeleteThe port was a 'cardboard' one. A back pack that contained a sponge bottle and rag for cleaning my slate, some cake for little lunch and plum jam sandwich for big lunch wrapped in waxed grease proof paper which was to be taken home to be reused the next day.
I wished it would be summer. Nice pictures!
ReplyDeleteLove both shots and the way you have connected them!
ReplyDeletePhotos are great and well, it's been a while since I last read DH Lawrance:)
ReplyDeleteYes yes, waxed grease proof paper ... and to the reuse the next day ... folding it in four and smoothing it out to make it easier for Mum ... hah!
ReplyDeleteMy port (I think we used that term too) was a globite one with a black handle and protectors on each corner. I think it was cardboard but very strong stuff. It had the clips that you push back with your thumbs and the little clasp shoots out.
Love the poem - and I hope the teacher of the empty hook classroom's "unruly hounds" are having a good vacation!
ReplyDeleteThree Rivers Daily Photo