<html xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"><body><h1 align="center" class="head">Master and Pupil</h1><h1 align="center" class="head">(To J. F. R.)</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line"><span class="smallcaps">Two</span> years ago I taught him Greek,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">And used to give him hints on bowling:</p><p class="line">His classics were a trifle weak;</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">His "action" needed some controlling.</p><p class="line">Convinced of my superior <em>nous</em></p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">I thought him crude, and I was rather</p><p class="line">Inclined, as master of his House,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">To treat him like a heavy father.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">I wrote the usual reports</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Upon his "lack of concentration";</p><p class="line">Though certainly at winter Sports</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">He did not earn this condemnation.</p><p class="line">I took him out San Moritz way</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">One Christmas, and our <em>rôles</em> inverted,</p><p class="line">For in the land of ski and sleigh</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">His mastery was soon asserted.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">I thought him just a normal lad,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Well-mannered, wholesome, unaffected;</p><p class="line">The makings of a Galahad</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">In him I had not yet detected;</p><p class="line">And when I strove to mend his style,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Blue-penciling his exercises,</p><p class="line">I little guessed that all the while</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">His soul was ripe for high emprises.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Two years ago! and here I am,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Rejected as unfit; still trying</p><p class="line">(As Verrall taught me on the Cam)</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">To make Greek Plays electrifying.</p><p class="line">And he who, till he was eighteen,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Found life one long excuse for laughing,</p><p class="line">For eighteen solid months has been</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Continuously "strafed" or "strafing."</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">He writes me letters from the front</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Which prove, although he doesn't know it,</p><p class="line">That though his words are plain and blunt,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">He has the vision of a poet;</p><p class="line">And lately, on his eight days' rest,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">After long months of hard campaigning,</p><p class="line">He came, and lo! an angel guest</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">I was aware of entertaining.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">About himself he seldom spoke,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">But often of his widowed mother,</p><p class="line">And how she nobly bore the stroke</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">That robbed them of his sailor brother.</p><p class="line">And still, from loyalty or whim,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">He would defer to my opinion,</p><p class="line">Unconscious how I envied him</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">His hard-earned gift of self-dominion.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">For he had faced the awful King</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Of Shadows in the darksome Valley,</p><p class="line">And scorned the terrors of his sting</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">In many a perilous storm and sally.</p><p class="line">Firm in the faith that never tires</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Or thinks that man is God-forsaken,</p><p class="line">From war's fierce seven-times-heated fires</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">He had emerged unseared, unshaken.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">There are, alas! no sons of mine</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">To serve their country in her trial,</p><p class="line">Embattled in the cause divine</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Of sacrifice and self-denial;</p><p class="line">But if there were, I could not pray</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">That God might shield them from disaster</p><p class="line">More strongly than I plead to-day</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">For this my pupil and my master.</p></div><p class="byline">-- O. M.</p></body></html> · Great War