A Poem for our Old Boys

The Chapel and the Tree
By Mitchell Thomas

The inspiration of the poem comes from Plato's Republic, where Socrates remarks that the intellectual development of the young depends, in no small part, on the good images and experiences that a child has early on. We labor at Western to see that the boys receive these through their classes and festival days. These are essential images. Nevertheless, even more essential, is The Teacher whose lessons come from simply being in the world He created. A boy, (dare, I say, even a teacher) whose days are spent in between the poles of the Chapel and the Tree, is part of a conversation that he may not even be aware of but makes deep impressions on the memory. These memories deepen the conviction that the world arises and is oriented to The True, The Good, and the Beautiful. A great intellect without this insight and conviction, would profit little.

Who knows how long it will be,
but good to hope
they’ll learn, in time, the lessons 
of the Chapel and the Tree.  

Lessons through the clarity 
of the altar bell’s chime,
lesson in the branches
they run to climb.           

Lessons to rhyme,
lessons to see,
lessons coming in
quiet antiphony,

the sacred, the profane,
whether stained glass hues
on the chapel floor lain-
brown, gold, green and blue

or to the tree return, and
the living lesson taught
from fresh rains fallen on
resurrection fern.  Nowmemories giving sunlight
showing through sprawling canopy,
throwing dappled shadows on the ground,
now come echoes of Dona Nobis Pacem
sung in the round.

May the ring waxed imprint 
be heavy to endure and 
the wool receiving dye 
be set and sure.
And may all that the 
Tree and Chapel made 
carry them safely onward,
long after memory 
of classroom lessons fade.