Things I Didn't Know

I didn't know that Henry VIII was married more than once

Or Shelley was a poet

I didn't know Alexander the Great had conquered most of Greece

Or people came from monkeys

I didn't know that the Garden of Eden was all just a beautiful myth...

I never read Great Expectations

Summer On The Lake

Euripides' Electra

I never met The Two Noble Kinsmen

Or ever came across The Merry Wives Of Windsor

I always feel like I'm Alice in Wonderland

Stranded in Vanity Fair...

Once upon a time

O Captain! My Captain!

I'm so many years behind

I'm still so many years behind

[Jervis Pendleton]

I didn't know that she'd be so clever!

I never dreamed of such imagination

I never read thoughts so expressive!

I really must re-read

The Count of Monte Cristo

What am I thinking? I'm missing appointments

To read what she studied in French

I'm baffled and perplexed

O Captain! My Captain!

I really must get back to work

I wonder what she'll write me next...

[Jerusha Abbott]

I never heard of Meg, Jo, Beth or Amy

I'd never been to Dover Beach

Or heard the phrase

A man's reach should exceed his grasp

I feel like The Idiot

Or the Toilers Of The Sea

O Captain! My Captain!

All the world is verse to me

A lady with a lamp I see...

I'd never heard the moonlight sonata, a Chopin Polonaise, a Brandenburg Concerto

I didn't know that Lillian Russell triumphed on the stage

Or Monet was a painter

And you may laugh at me

I thought George Elliot was without a question a man

I'm opening my mind

O Captain! My Captain!

I'm so many years behind

I'm still so many years behind

Now, Daddy, I must sleep

But I will think of you

For, Daddy, I know there is still much catching up to do