Page 24 - Leonard Tebbenham

Class 48 2nd week 23 June 1942
rd

Ode to "Professor Tebbenham”

Great Jove on Mount Olympus soaring high,
Commanding every aspect of the western sky,

Could not translate, as you, the power of thought,

Which lies behind the wisdom you have taught,

Could not suggest in symbols, signs and words,

With one balloon, the flight and moods of birds,

Could not inspire us, so that day and night,

We yearn to practise the theodolite.
Nor could the Gods who on Olympus walk,

Produce such figures on the board with chalk,

Which beckon us with tantalising air,

To learn the whither, why, and when, and where,

Nor could great Zeus who reigns in sky of blue,

Have subjects cowering 'neath his glance, as you,

Who tremble as the words of wisdom fall,

Because they know they’ll never know at all!

Have patience for when I tread the heavenly sod,
You may find you’re the sinner – I the God.

Timidly we venture to suggest,

Ere your kind patience gives out with the rest,

Before you scowl and vicious phrases call,

Believe me when I say I speak for all,

Excuse us when we cannot keep the pace,
Nor think of us as just a hopeless case,

Here lies the point, this moment I will seize,

And ask the man dictating with such ease,

May we go slower, a little slower please?

Two rhymes discovered amongst family papers some seventy years after they were penned.