The Old School Song

The Old School Song

“Boyhood will grow to youth,

Manhood come soon.

Life’s morning mist will melt

Into clear noon.”

How wrong, how wrong

Was the old school song

Though at the time

It seemed to rhyme

And reason well.

From month to month through the whole school year

We sang it through both loud and long.

But was it right?

For noon was far from clear to me,

And later in the day it seems

That cloud and mist are all around.

The way to go is far from sure

We hardly know and cannot see

Where we should be making for,

And where we should be going from here.

But what was then our morning,

Then that seemed to be crystal clear.

‘Life’s morning mists…’ it says and yet

Our boyhood days had goals all set.

The next exam and the next match to play,

For us life was as clear as day.

It’s later that the mists descend,

When you wonder more about your route.

Were they right, the bearings that we took?

By now we should see hills we know

Or did I miss the turning back along?  

Should I have gone another way?

It’s autumn now.

The mists have come on time

As they come on time through all the years.

The fields are wet with night

When the light of day at last appears.

The swallows fly in masses in the sky

And form long lines along the wires

Queuing for a trip to Africa.

Nature knows where she is going

And year on year she gets it right.

In the evening we still find

It hard to see the way ahead

And to decide where we should really be.

We find the years do not give peace

Or clarity of mind.

And yet the swallows always know

When to leave and where to go.