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<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=365657" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>Ampitherium</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">The schoolroom overlooked the downs, <br>The heather in full bloom, <br>As Paul Remarque sat heavy-eyed<br>All through the afternoon, <br>He heard the teacher's droning voice<br>But nothing that it said, <br>As trees and animals and birds <br>Went racing through his head.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">No thoughts of plain arithmetic<br>Had sullied up his mind, <br>He had no thoughts of nouns or verbs<br>Or any of that kind, <br>He sat bemused, and filled his head<br>With purple daffodils, <br>With giant gargoyle anthropods, <br>And distant, flowered hills.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">He'd had the cane so many times, <br>His hands were almost raw, <br>The teacher called him out the front<br>For three times out of four, <br>He couldn't answer anything<br>Of what the teacher taught, <br>His mind was either journeying, <br>Or else was set to naught.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Then after school he'd race on down<br>That field at Emile's farm, <br>The one where no-one ever went<br>In case they came to harm, <br>For fissures there had opened up<br>The limestone 	caves below, <br>And that was where young Paul Remarque<br>Just knew he had to go.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">He took a torch, and slid on down<br>Beneath a giant stone, <br>The ground had opened up just there, <br>He always went alone, <br>He took his torch, and made his way<br>To chambers down beneath, <br>Then looked up at the ceilings where<br>They'd drawn, in light relief.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The cave men of the region, they<br>Had drawn so long ago<br>The pictures of their daily lives, <br>Of bison, buffalo, <br>Of elk and deer and hunters<br>Who had slain with sharpened stone, <br>Those animals ranged round the walls, <br>That lived so long ago.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Then in a further cave, he saw<br>The monsters he had dreamed, <br>With teeth like savage ripping tools<br>Serrated on the seam, <br>With eyes as cold as avatars<br>And claws that gripped their prey, <br>That dripped blood, even human blood<br>The drawings seemed to say.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">For as he watched, this panoply<br>Had swirled before his eyes, <br>Had bucked and twisted in the graves<br>These drawings symbolized, <br>And in their midst, a monster form<br>With head, part like a god, <br>And part like some bronzed eagle<br>Seemed to fix him, with a nod.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The longer that he stared, the more<br>The monsters seemed to move, <br>They stomped around the flickered walls<br>To see if he'd approve, <br>And soon this Godlike centrepiece<br>Came lunging from the wall, <br>'My name is Ampitherium, '<br>It seemed to say to Paul.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">His parents visited the school, <br>'Our son learns nothing here; <br>We've waited for improvement now<br>The best part of a year! '<br>'He's such a dunce, ' the teacher said, <br>'Can't keep his mind on things, <br>He goes off with the faeries, and<br>I catch him drawing wings.'</div><div style="margin:10px 0">'He must be taught a lesson, ' said<br>His father, heavily, <br>'I never thought a son of mine<br>Could act so stupidly; <br>He disappears for hours, when he<br>Should be returning home...'<br>'I'll find him, and I'll beat him, ' said<br>The teacher, Monsieur Sloane.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">They went down in a group to find<br>Young Paul at Emile's Farm, <br>Arrived at the End Field, and then<br>They halted, fearing harm, <br>'This ground's unsafe, ' his mother said, <br>'I'll not go further in, '<br>And so they all marched back to town, <br>Each face was looking grim.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The sun had set when Paul emerged<br>From down beneath that stone, <br>He looked quite proud, as on he trod<br>That field, that hallowed loam, <br>For in his wake, a thundering<br>Of beasts, not seen by man<br>Appeared when Ampitherium<br>Came lumbering into town! </div><div style="margin:10px 0">There is a town in western France<br>Where lies a mystery, <br>For there dark murder stained the pages<br>Of its history, <br>A teacher and two parents there<br>Were torn quite limb from limb, <br>Their son could utter just one word: <br>'Ampitherium! '</div><div style="margin:10px 0">18 June 2009</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=David+Lewis+Paget">David Lewis Paget</a><div class=q>
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<script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=citatepedia" async="async"></script><div style="display:inline-block" class="addthis_sharing_toolbox" data-url="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=365657" data-title="Ampitherium de David Lewis Paget" data-description="The schoolroom overlooked the downs, 
The heather in full bloom, 
As Paul Remarque sat heavy-eyed
All through the afternoon, 
He heard the teacher's droning voice
But nothing that it said, 
As trees and animals and birds 
Went racing through his h..."></div>
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