T

his is the Teaching Shakespeare Institute.
 We that outlive this place, and come safe home,
 Will stand a-tiptoe when this place is named
 And rouse us at the name of Folger.
 We who have known this place, and live old age,
 Shall when we open Caesar or Macbeth,
The Tempest or the sonnet ninety-four,
 Say with a groan these notes I took at Folger¹s.
 Forget we all, yet all shall be forgot
 But we¹ll remember, shivering, how cold
 We were that hot July. Then shall your names,
 Familiar in our mouths as household words
 Jeremy, Jay, Megan and Julia,
 Stephen and Margaret, Michael, Caleen,
 Mike, Mary Ellen, and lest we forget,
 Sweet Deirdre who, with patience full our heads
 Did count while stylish-threaded Albert drove
 Us here and back each day with perfect skill
 When we are in our cups be fresh recalled.
 These lessons well each teacher tell each class:
 And Shakespeare¹s work we¹ll never read again
 From this day to the ending of the world
 But we, and it, shall be remembered;
 We few, we happy few, we band of scholars.
 For he, and she, who tips this cup tonight,
 Shall be now scholars true. And pedagogues
 Who elsewhere loll a-beach and work on tans,
 Shall think themselves accursed they were not here
 And hold their tenures cheap whiles any speaks
 That taught with us at Folger¹s TSI!

By Tim Clark, TSI 2006