“Chasing Chaucer and Beowulf out of the Curriculum”
–Spectator
Someday a new Merlin among the ruins
Will give a new Arthur a trove of hidden books:
Chaucer and Milton, Shakespeare, Coleridge, Keats
And maybe even long silent Malory
Someday a bold Arthur will command his scribes
To copy for the people the people’s words
Words long forbidden to them by narrow tyrants
Making words free to all, and letting in the sun 1
Someday a wise King Arthur will reign again
Within the greatest empire of all – the mind
1Tennyson, “The Coming of Arthur,” line 60