Back-to-School Sentiment From a Poet

The following poem was sent ’round this week by one teacher to all the faculty and staff at Inly:

Beginning my studies, the first step pleas’d me so much,
The mere fact, consciousness—these forms—the power of motion,
The least insect or animal—the senses—eyesight—love;
The first step, I say, aw’d me and pleas’d me so much,
I have hardly gone, and hardly wish’d to go, and, farther
But stop and loiter all the time, to sing it in ecstatic songs.

—Walt Whitman (1819–1892). Leaves of Grass.  1900.

The faculty has all returned and the teachers are busy getting their classroom environments ready for the students’ first step into a new year—marvelous energy on campus today!

Leave a Reply