Retirement Dinner

Sonnet 4
Christopher Bogart

One fine September day, long years ago,
I walked into a classroom, stark and bare,
With doubts and hopes I’d hoped would never show,
To set my foot on roads few travelers dared.
Would they like Shakespeare’s plays? Their will be Donne?
Would Beowulf’s adventures set them free?
Would Swift, and Pope, and Johnson make them run?
Would they like poetry? Would they like me?
Long years have passed since that September day
When first I set my foot upon that path
That led so many minds to dare to stray
From temporary dreams to those that last.
I dared to try to reach beyond the bars
And gently guide their hands to touch the stars.