LITTLE RED SCHOOL

R. P. Tristram Coffin

 

All:             The little house where boys and girls

                   Sat with heavy hearts,

Solo 1:       The red school house with the single room

                   Was where we got our start.

 

All:             One dipper and one water pail

                   Ladled our life to all,

Solo 1:       And Washington held the eastern side

                   And Lincoln the west wall.

 

All:             Between them were the dog-eared books

                   And slates with bright yarn bound,

Solo 1:       The names of boys and girls cut deep

                   With hearts of love around.

 

                   How came the bullfrog in the pail?

                   What countries bound Brazil?---

All:             The bit boys worshipped cornsilk braids,

                   And small boys sprouted will.

 

Solo 1:       A future judge sat with a smudge

                   On pre-judicial chin,

                   Great soldiers sat in trousers rent

                   And universal grin.

                   High on the stool in his peaked cap

                   Sat one of the wise

                   Who played the fool so he could see

                   Far trees against the skies.

 

                  

 

 

                   A poet in knee-pants had found

                   The way not to be there,

                   Great swans and armies shone clean through

                   The cube roots and the square.

 

All:             Very close to corn and truth,

                   To cows and all creation,

                   America sat with naked feet

                   And learned to be a nation.