Recite

Recite

Inky, enters the TARDIS again….and lands in Our Lady of Mount Carmel RC High…third year english..and the origins of his poetry

I recall old wooden benches – the ones with (ironically) the old inkwell’s set into the base.

Mountains of Books handed down from pupil to pupil and placed strategically on what i’d now call the Northwest corner of the table

The teacher would begin – and then stopping at a paragraph – he’d pick a pupil at random, going around the classroom

Young minds caught on tenterhooks as the class ventured their way through the story.

On one or two occasions – the book matter changed – the hardback stories stayed where they were – to be returned to on another occasion – and the brightly coloured books were passed from pupil to pupil

The Adventures of Isobel….The Nonsense poems of Ogden Nash….pieces from “Local” poets….Roger McGough, Brian Patten (The regional difference hadn’t hit me in my formative years), not forgetting “The classics”, Kipling, stephenson and all.

And there would even be the time where an adolescent squeaky voice – changing by the day with puberty would have to deliver one or two pieces

“Isobel met an enormous bear….Isobel, Isobel, didn’t care”

(Ogden Nash – The Adventures of Isobel)

I’d write away in my exercise books with glee guided by the work of these poets

it’s something thats stuck with me ever since.