New Classic Poems – Contemporary Verse That Rhymes

New Classic Poems
Just For Fun
To Her Apathetic Students
Vicki DuMond
Had we but world enough and time,
Your apathy would be no crime.
We would sit down and think which way
To while the semester away.
You, by the student center's side,
Could parties find, while in my untried
Classroom, I complain. I could
Instruct you ten years before the flood,
And you could, if you please, refuse
'Til the conversion of the Jews.
Your vegetable minds could grow
Vaster than empires and more slow.
A hundred years could go to raise
A fuss and out the window gaze,
Ten thousand years to take each test,
And thirty thousand just to rest,
An age, at least, to every part,
And the last age should make you smart,
For, students, you deserve such state,
Nor could I teach at a lower rate.
But at my back, I always hear
Time's winged shuttle hurrying near,
And yonder, all before us, lie
Deserts of vast stupidity.
Your talents shall no more be found,
Nor, in your marble vaults, shall sound
My echoing song, then worms shall try
Your long-preserved vacuity.
And your poor minds shall turn to clay,
And into ashes all I say.
The grave's a fine and quiet spot,
But a classroom it is not.
So, therefore, while the youthful hue
Sits on thy skin, like morning dew,
Though your unwilling souls transpire
At every pore with instant ire,
Yet, let us study while we may,
And now, like wise birds of prey,
Rather at once our time devour
Than languish here another hour.
Let us roll all our strength and all
Our energy into one ball
And tear at knowledge with rough strife
Through the labyrinths of life.
Thus, though we cannot make your hind
Sit still, yet we shall fill your mind.
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