A School Song -- Rudyard Kipling

Guest poem sent in by Priscilla Jebaraj

(Poem #1905) A School Song "Let us now praise famous men"-- Men of little showing-- For their work continueth, And their work continueth, Greater than their knowing. Western wind and open surge Tore us from our mothers; Flung us on a naked shore (Twelve bleak houses by the shore! Seven summers by the shore!) 'Mid two hundred brothers. There we met with famous men Set in office o'er us. And they beat on us with rods-- Faithfully with many rods-- Daily beat us on with rods-- For the love they bore us! Out of Egypt unto Troy-- Over Himalaya-- Far and sure our bands have gone-- Hy-Brasil or Babylon, Islands of the Southern Run, And cities of Cathaia! And we all praise famous men-- Ancients of the College; For they taught us common sense--- Tried to teach us common sense-- Truth and God's Own Common Sense Which is more than knowledge! Each degree of Latitude Strung about Creation Seeth one (or more) of us, (Of one muster all of us-- Of one master all of us--) Keen in his vocation. This we learned from famous men Knowing not its uses When they showed in daily work Man must finish off his work-- Right or wrong, his daily work- And without excuses. Servants of the staff and chain, Mine and fuse and grapnel-- Some before the face of Kings, Stand before the face of Kings; Bearing gifts to divers Kings-- Gifts of Case and Shrapnel. This we learned from famous men Teaching in our borders. Who declare'd it was best, Safest, easiest and best-- Expeditious, wise and best-- To obey your orders. Some beneath the further stars Bear the greater burden. Set to serve the lands they rule, (Save he serve no man may rule) Serve and love the lands they rule; Seeking praise nor guerdon. This we learned from famous men Knowing not we learned it. Only, as the years went by-- Lonely, as the years went by-- Far from help as years went by Plainer we discerned it. Wherefore praise we famous men Prom whose bays we borrow-- They that put aside Today-- All the joys of their Today-- And with toil of their Today Bought for us Tomorrow! Bless and praise we famous men Men of little showing! For their work continueth And their work continueth Broad and deep continueth Great beyond their knowing! -- Rudyard Kipling

I'm not sure this qualifies for the theme --  it's the introductory poem to
Kipling's school story "Stalky and Co", but the school IS called the
College :)  (If you don't want to use it for this theme, why not save it up
for Teacher's Day on September 5?) [Works for me - it fits the theme in
spirit, at least - martin]

I must admit I'm submitting the poem largely because I loved the book.  I
remember discovering it during my own college days...fed up of exams and
literary criticism essays, I was rummaging through WCC's dusty and
unorganised fiction library looking for something light and entertaining
when I found "Stalky and Co". I laughed my way through the antics of Stalky,
Beetle and M'Turk, sparing hardly a thought for their poor teachers.

Interesting, then, that the opening lines of the book are a paean to those
same teachers. To me, they seem idealistic in a way the book is not. But
I've realised the truth of some of it now...while I feel none of the sheer
affection for my college professors that I did for elementary school
teachers for example, it's certainly true that I did learn so many things
from them without even realising it:

  This we learned from famous men
  Knowing not we learned it.

And certainly my favourite teachers were those who...

 ...taught us common sense---
 Tried to teach us common sense--
 Truth and God's Own Common Sense
 Which is more than knowledge!

I like the rhythm of the poem without being able to explain why (obviously,
I remember little of the lectures which attempted to teach me such basics of
poetry appreciation!)

Stalky and Co is rather different from the typical school story, both the
schoolboy tales of its own time or the more modern schoolgirl exploits I
devoured in middle school. Here's an essay that explores both the negative
and positive aspects of those differences and provides quite a good
background to the book: http://www.kipling.org.uk/rg_stalky_intro.htm#top

I'm just quoting an excerpt from it here:

  Stalky & Co. is the only school story which shows school as a direct
  preparation for life. Most others actually make the world outside
  school seem irrelevant, an anticlimax, an unimaginable void. Kipling,
  for all his intense feeling for the school atmosphere and the moods of
  adolescence, shows school as the first stage of a much larger game, a
  pattern-maker for the experiences of life. This is mainly what makes
  it unlike the others, with their narrow, school-centred preoccupations
  and their belief, often implied and sometimes even stated, in the
  overwhelming importance of this preliminary stage of life, which was
  actually presumed to outdo the rest in importance. In Kipling, not
  only is a later life envisaged very clearly at school, but the
  divisions between school and the world outside are less clearly
  defined than they are in most other school stories; not just in the
  sense that the boys make free with the surrounding countryside and
  hobnob happily with the locals, bilingual in standard English and
  broad Devon, but in a metaphorical sense: school teaches lessons
  (obviously), but, less obviously, the lessons are much more than those
  of the classroom. It teaches the boys how to live..."

And while this link between school/college and life is made clear in the
last chapter (a kind of epilogue that traces the later imperialistic careers
of its main characters), it's foreshadowed in this introductory poem as
well.

Priscilla