Ballad of the Scholar's Lament
Ballad of the Scholar's Lament - form Summary
Ballad Voice Mocks Schooling
This mock-ballad adopts a sing-song narrative voice to register a student's comic despair at being overloaded with classical and mathematical study. Repeating the refrain How shall I manage to compose a theme?
, the poem lists epic subjects and classroom tasks only to undercut their grandeur with private anxieties and everyday absurdities. The ballad form and the concluding envoi make the lament feel both public and self-mocking, turning scholarly toil into comic ritual.
When I have struggled through three hundred years of Roman history, and hastened o'er Some French play-(though I have my private fears Of flunking sorely when I take the floor In class),-when I have steeped my soul in gore And Greek, and figured over half a ream With Algebra, which I do (not) adore, How shall I manage to compose a theme? It's well enough to talk of poor and peers, And munch the golden apples' shiny core, And lay a lot of heroes on their biers;- While the great Alec, knocking down a score, Takes out his handkerchief, boohoo-ing, "More!"- But harshly I awaken from my dream, To find a new,-er,-privilege,-in store: How shall I manage to compose a theme? After I've swallowed prophecies of seers, And trailed Aeneas from the Trojan shore, Learned how Achilles, after many jeers, On piggy Agamemnon got to sore, And heard how Hercules, Esq., tore Around, and swept and dusted with a stream, There's one last duty,-let's not call it bore,- How shall I manage to compose a theme? Envoi Of what avail is all my mighty lore? I beat my breast, I tear my hair, I scream: "Behold, I have a Herculean chore. How shall I manage to compose a theme?"
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