Day 279
Curse you Miss Luchek!
She was my 5th grade teacher and besides having a weird and complete fascination with all things Pooh (as in Winnie the …) and calling kids who did not do well on tests and homework assignments … dunderheads (can you imagine?) … she made us memorize poetry.
And for better or for worse … mostly for worse, I think … these verses pop into my head – seemingly out of nowhere – when I’m folding clothes or driving or, yes – once again, in the shower.
The textbook we used was The Roberts English Series – A Linguistics Approach (Grade 5). I remember really liking it at the time, but it’s been 45 years since and I’m really quite sick of having these poems pop to the surface of my brain like a submerged marshmallow in hot cocoa. I’m tired of my brain’s sound reel repeating First Sight or Sea Fever or Buffalo Dusk whenever my mind isn’t occupied with something more current or important. Which, sadly, seems like quite often these days!
And for whatever reasons Eldorado (by Edgar Allan Poe) is the poem that comes to mind most often …
Gaily bedight, a gallant knight – in sunshine and in shadow had journeyed long, singing a song, in search of Eldorado.
But he grew old, this knight so bold – and o’er his heart a shadow fell, as he found no spot of ground that looked like Eldorado.
And, as his strength failed him at length, he met a pilgrim shadow. “Shadow,” said he, “Where can it be – this land of Eldorado?”
“Over the mountains of the moon, down the Valley of the Shadow, ride, boldly ride,” the shade replied, “If you seek for Eldorado.”
Now WHY, after all these years, is that stuck in my head? I have no idea. But, if I ever forget the poem (which I highly doubt) I can look it up because I still have the book. Which really makes me wonder … WHY do I still have that book? Did I steal it? Were we allowed to keep books back in 1968? Did I find it in an antique store years later? I don’t remember how I acquired the book and yet I remember, clearly, the poems contained therein.
And every once in a while, again – for reasons unbeknownst to me, I’ll take said book off the shelf and flip through the pages and recite one of the poems. I don’t know why I bother opening the book because the words are forever etched in my brain and I do not need to look at those yellowing pages (however nice the pictures!).
And as much as it drives me crazy now – it was however, most probably my first introduction to accomplished writers … and maybe those writings got to me. I’ve been a bookie and a word fool for as long as I can remember. I’m not saying that my vocabulary is prodigious – far from it – but I like the way words sound. Some writers have a flair for stringing words together like well-worn pearls: smooth, luminous and luxuriant … and others throw words out like jagged shards of glass: scattered and painful and menacing. I tend to like the former but either way – I find them fascinating.
In any case … I guess I have the curriculum advisors to thank for having that book in the classroom the year I was in 5th grade -so, my thanks to them. But I’m still going to curse Miss Luchek.