On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer

BY JOHN KEATS Much have I travell’d in the realms of gold, And many goodly states and kingdoms seen; Round many western islands have I been Which bards in fealty to Apollo hold. Oft of one wide expanse had I been told That deep-brow’d Homer ruled as his demesne; Yet did I never breathe its……

The Desire to Know

My mind reaches back to some earlier memories when I was, perhaps, five. My parents had rented a room of their house to a lady who held classes for young children. I would occasionally be present, merely as a spectator, but filled with awe and desire for the mysterious things that were being taught there.……

A Happiness Unalloyed

At seven I was admitted to the lycée. My happiness was unalloyed. I was a entering into the world of knowledge. My heart beat with an infinite hope. I would go to school, my heart filled with love and fear. The class was a holy thing. The school mistresses were being apart, their heads were……

The First Day Back

It was September and school opened at Gladys Special. Although the school was not on our property, we felt that it belonged to us because it was right up on the hill in sight of our house and it had the same name. We were proud, too, that it was the only “one-room” school around……

A Very Satisfying Sort of Life

School is a very satisfying sort of life; the books and study and regular classes keep you alive mentally, and then when your mind gets tired, you have the gymnasium and outdoor athletics, and always plenty of congenial friends who are thinking about the same things your are. We spend a whole evening in nothing……