As a young prep school boy of 10 years old I hated ‘prep’. ‘The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power, From this moment onwards I became more hooked on poetry than any other substance.
What is Poetry?
Nowadays ‘prep’ is ‘homework’.
I could not avoid it being at boarding school, but I made great efforts to be subversive, in my avoidance.
Sometimes this meant, even reading another section of a book, rather than the section assigned to be read.
It sounds ridiculous but I did not want to be told what to do.
One evening we had to read a poem in an anthology and write about it.
In the ‘prep’ I read, arbitarily, another poem.
It was entitled:
“Elegy written in a Country Churchyard” by a chap called Thomas Gray in the 16th century.
I read:
And all that beauty, all that wealth ere gave,
Awaits alike the inevitable hour,
The paths of glory, lead but to the grave…’
Cosmic and other Poets Poetry
Everything became subjugated to its exploration.
It continues to this day.
Long after the wonder of that little boy
Has faded into history
Though the Poetry still remains…
Marchesi Poetry
