"School's Out" may have been Alice Cooper's first big hit single but did you know it's also the title of a poem by a Welsh poet born in 1871? If you left school a few decades ago, you're probably more familiar with the poet as the author of "Leisure", with its famous opening couplet: "What is this life if, full of care, / We have no time to stand and stare." No doubt "Leisure" was once, for many young people, their first encounter with printed poetry. The author, of course, isWilliam Henry Davies, sometimes nicknamed "the tramp poet".
So this Poem of the week welcomes anybody who can remember what Alice Cooper described as one of the best moments in life: "the last three minutes of the last day of school when you're sitting there and it's like a slow fuse burning."
OK, you have to go back after Easter, but for now, children, School's Out.
School's Out
Girls scream,
Boys shout;
Dogs bark,
School's out.
Girls scream,
Boys shout;
Dogs bark,
School's out.
Cats run,
Horses shy;
Into trees
Birds fly.
Horses shy;
Into trees
Birds fly.
Babes wake
Open-eyed;
If they can,
Tramps hide.
Open-eyed;
If they can,
Tramps hide.
Old man,
Hobble home;
Merry mites,
Welcome.
Hobble home;
Merry mites,
Welcome.
THE END.
CC: The Guardian.
Post a Comment