My Education

  At school I sometimes read a book,
  And learned a lot of lessons;
  Some small amount of pains I took,
  And showed much acquiescence
  In what my masters said, good men!
  Yet after all I quite
  Forgot the most of it: but then
  I learned to write.
  At Lincoln's Inn I'd read a brief,
  Abstract a title, study
  Great paper-piles, beyond belief
  Inelegant and muddy:
  The whole of these as time went by
  I soon forgot: indeed
  I tried to: yes: but by and by
  I learned to read.
  By help of Latin, Greek and Law
  I now can write and read too:
  Then perish each forgotten saw,
  Each fact I do not need too:
  But still whichever way I turn
  At one sad task I stick:
  I fear that I shall never learn
  Arithmetic