Holcomb's World Lit Class Poem by Clinton Steele

‘Holcomb’s World Lit Class’
We come together under the premise of gaining worldly knowledge about literature.

Reading tales of Odysseus, Polyphemus, and the goddess Athena with eyes of Azure.

Our education began solemnly with the story of ‘Gilgamesh’.

The epic tale of the one who was half God and human flesh.

What woeful words she wrote, that pitiful tragedian.

Sappho was a Greek poet, and surely a lesbian.
Wanton lustful ladies, with ‘Lysistrata’ there were none.

We read aloud with much amusement, it was fun.

A shrewd and cunning tale of opulent lewdness.

I turned to find my morals and faith in the book of Genesis
.
No finer example of a witness and servant is there than Job.

Obedience to the Lord God is the path we were showed.

From Proverbs and Psalms, next came Islam and the Quran.

The faithful and loyal Muslim who seeks Allah follows that plan.

Erudition of the Indian gods is told in the Ramayana.
Turning to the Orient we find teachings of Confucianism and Mahayana.

Inward reflection, silent meditation, this is Chinese poetry.

Words written eloquently with beautiful transcendence, not vacuity.

Glimpsing the inner thoughts of a woman, we are given a quick look.

Her secrets are exposed and made common, in the ‘Pillow Book’.

Now ‘The Canterbury Tales’ are told by Geoffrey Chaucer in slant rhyme.

Mr. Holcomb reads to the class, grandiloquently and sublime.

“The Prince” lends me wisdom and guidance in the matters of rule.

Mull over your decisions in scholarly debate, don't play the fool.

As did that most noble and mad night, Señor Don Quixote.

Into the mighty arms of a churning wind mill, rode he.

Finally to the end we have come, no more readings alas.

It is over, this is the end of Mr. Holcomb's World Lit class.

As we say goodbye and bid farewell, our class no longer meets.

It’s the end of my poem there's no more to tell, this is goodbye from W. E. Cleets.




W. E. Cleets