Malcolm Bull's Calderdale Companion : Foldout

Sowerby's Retiring Schoolmaster

Poem by

Levi Haigh

Sowerby's retiring schoolmaster – Coun. J. T, NAYLOR J.P.
Lines read at the Farewell Meeting held in the Sowerby National School January 11th, 1912.

As I think of this old village,
 Which a lifetime I have known,
There is nothing in its quaintness
 That I am ashamed to own,
But a many things about it,
 Over which I long could dwell.
Though, of only one among them,
 I, at present, wish to tell.

Not of narrow streets and winding,
 Not of chapel nor of church;
Not of curious nooks and corners,
 For which many often search;
Not of homely men and women,
 Not of youths and maidens fair,
Nor of children, as they journey
 To that day-school over there.

Yet, those children I will follow
 To that school. for well I know
'Tis the one which I attended
 in the days of long-ago;
And whenever I remember
 Things that happened when a boy,
There arise peculiar feelings,
 Mixed with pathos and with joy.

In that school are many changes,
 For there is not one to-day
Who was wont to sit at lessons
 And with whom I used to play.
Boys and girls they are no longer,
 Full of pleasure, free from care,
But have grown to men and women.
 Doing service everywhere.

Not a master, not a mistress,
 Nor a teacher there I see
Who was there when we were scholars:
 They have left it too like me:
But among the staff at present.
 All of whom I much esteem,
There is one I wish to honour,
 In this poem, as my theme.

'Tis the master, now resigning,
 He has laboured long and well,
Six and thirty years of service – 
 Who will try its worth to tell?
None can measure all the power
 And regard which he has won,
Nor can tabulate the blessings
 Of the work that he has done.

When I think of all the scholars
 Who have passed beneath his care,
Needing guidance and instruction
 For their life-work to prepare;
Then I see the great importance
 Of the work which he has done:
Training others on the threshold
 Of the race which they must run.

When I think that every scholar
 Has a free unbiassed mind,
Ever open and receptive
 To whatever it may find,
Then I see the fine advantage
 All instructors must possess,
To instill in those around them
 Things that tend to usefulness.

In the virgin soil of childhood,
 Seeds may easily be cast,
And the plants be seen appearing
 While their rootlets deepen fast;
But the fruits, whene'er they ripen
 In those scholars' after-days.
Will reveal the teacher's failure,
 Or contribute to his praise.

Poetry by Levi Haigh

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