Jsa

School on a hill Citadel above the slum and squalor Prepare me still To meet the worst with my best endeavor Teach me again The way the soil may bind the rain And sugarcane To yield abundantly, a sweeter gain. I recall now With pride, your science and splendour The heavy plough Making waves for corn, like ships in the harbor And the friendships there And the raucous hearts of young men dreaming Of lissome maidens fair And ever and ever the babel of learning. There beside you Sufferer's heights, and there below all Central Village, and my Jew And how I was a shadow midst your hall Till days long task were done Till jasmine winds tame evening sun Till she smiled at the door And happiness promised forevermore O school, my school I wished you had taught me then The strange ways desire bend The heart of men, and love's fickle path You could have spared time's wrath For wasted dreams when talent breaks The ladder of success, and sorrow rakes The forgotten years With love's forlorn tears.