By Jacqueline Schaalje

Just in case you thought that schools all over the world are beautiful lit buildings with colourful posters and huge audio-visual libraries… Um, that is only in some parts of the world.

So What’s a Bark School?

Around a hundred years ago, most of our great-grandparents went to schools that were simple buildings or sheds with a single teacher teaching them how to read and write and do some arithmetic (= math) and not much else. If the students didn’t listen or they made a mistake, the teacher would whack (= hit) them over the head.

Or worse, only the boys went to school. And then they’d drop out after a few years to work, because they had a million brothers and sisters who also needed to be fed (= they needed food). And that was in countries which are now very rich.

In the poem underneath you can read about such a primitive school in Australia.

After you’ve read it and/or listened to the audio reading of it, we’ll talk about a few words.

Henry Lawson, Australia’s National Poet

By the way, Henry Lawson was born in Australia in 1867. At the age of 14 he lost his hearing. Around the same time that he created a family and published his first writings, he also became addicted to alcohol. He was famous as a poet and writer of short stories.

The Old Bark School – Poem by Henry Lawson (1867-1922)

It was built of bark and poles, and the floor was full of holes
Where each leak in rainy weather made a pool;
And the walls were mostly cracks lined with calico and sacks –
There was little need for windows in the school.

Then we rode to school and back by the rugged gully-track,
On the old grey horse that carried three or four;
And he looked so very wise that he lit the master’s eyes
Every time he put his head in at the door.

He had run with Cobb and Co. – “that grey leader, let him go!”
There were men “as knowed the brand upon his hide”,
And “as knowed it on the course”. Funeral service: “Good old horse!”
When we burnt him in the gully where he died.

And the master thought the same. ‘Twas from Ireland that he came,
Where the tanks are full all summer, and the feed is simply grand;
And the joker then in vogue said his lessons wid a brogue –
‘Twas unconscious imitation, let the reader understand.

And we learnt the world in scraps from some ancient dingy maps
Long discarded by the public-schools in town;
And as nearly every book dated back to Captain Cook
Our geography was somewhat upside-down.

It was “in the book” and so – well, at that we’d let it go,
For we never would believe that print could lie;
And we all learnt pretty soon that when we came out at noon
“The sun is in the south part of the sky.”

And Ireland! that was known from the coast-line to Athlone:
We got little information re the land that gave us birth;
Save that Captain Cook was killed (and was very likely grilled)
And “the natives of New Holland are the lowest race on earth”.

And a woodcut, in its place, of the same degraded race
Seemed a lot more like a camel than the blackfellows that we knew;
Jimmy Bullock, with the rest, scratched his head and gave it best;
But his faith was sadly shaken by a bobtailed kangaroo.

But the old bark school is gone, and the spot it stood upon
Is a cattle-camp in winter where the curlew’s cry is heard;
There’s a brick school on the flat, but a schoolmate teaches that,
For, about the time they built it, our old master was “transferred”.

But the bark school comes again with exchanges ‘cross the plain –
With the Out-Back Advertiser; and my fancy roams at large
When I read of passing stock, of a western mob or flock,
With “James Bullock”, “Grey”, or “Henry Dale” in charge.

And I think how Jimmy went from the old bark school content,
With his “eddication” finished, with his pack-horse after him;
And perhaps if I were back I would take the self-same track,
For I wish my learning ended when the Master “finished” Jim.

—

Okay, now let’s go over the poem line by line and see whether you understand all the words:

Lines 1-4:

It was built of bark and poles, and the floor was full of holes 

Where each leak in rainy weather made a pool; 

And the walls were mostly cracks lined with calico and sacks – 
There was little need for windows in the school. 
L1. It means the school. You probably figured that out.

Bark is the stuff that covers tree trunks. And poles are long sticks.

The floors were full of holes and there were puddles on the floor when it rained.

The walls were full of holes too (“cracks”) that were stuffed closed with calico (= a heavy cotton) and sacks (filled with sand) were put against them.

L4. There was no need for windows is a joke, because there were plenty of holes in the wall as it was.

Lines 4-8:

Then we rode to school and back by the rugged gully-track, 
On the old grey horse that carried three or four; 
And he looked so very wise that he lit the master’s eyes 
Every time he put his head in at the door. 
The boys got to school on horseback. They rode through a gully (= a ditch, a deep track made by the rain).

Rugged means rough.

There were more than a few boys on this old horse.

The horse looked very wise and it rode the boys up to the classroom door, and the master’s eyes (the master is the teacher) would lit up seeing the horse. That means the master smiled.

Lines 9-12:

He had run with Cobb and Co. – “that grey leader, let him go!” 
There were men “as knowed the brand upon his hide”, 
And “as knowed it on the course”. Funeral service: “Good old horse!” 
When we burnt him in the gully where he died. 
The horse had worked with Cobb and Co. This was the main transportation company in Australia. Before there were cars and trains, goods and people had to be transported by horses and coaches. The grey horse was let go; that means it retired because he was too old for work.

There were people who knew the horse: they knew the brand upon his hide, this means they knew which company the horse had worked for. The horse had to have a mark on his skin (hide is the skin of an animal), that showed he was owned by this or that company. This mark was branded, which means burnt into the skin.

There were also people who knew the horse from the course; it means from seeing the horse on the road.

But then the horse died. The boys gave it a funeral service and burnt him in the gully on the place where he died.

Lines 13-16:

And the master thought the same. ‘Twas from Ireland that he came, 
Where the tanks are full all summer, and the feed is simply grand; 
And the joker then in vogue said his lessons wid a brogue – 
‘Twas unconscious imitation, let the reader understand. 
The master (teacher) was also sorry for the horse. The master came from Ireland. At this time when the poem was written Australia was a colony of England, and immigrants from England and Ireland would move down under.

In Ireland there is enough food (the tanks are full all summer), and the food is great (“grand”). It’s not mentioned in the poem, but food was apparently scarce (= there wasn’t a lot).

A joker in the class, a clown, imitated the teacher’s Irish accent (his “brogue”). In vogue means in fashion, so this means the boy is the popular clown of the class. He didn’t mean it to be intentionally mean; it was “unconscious.”

Lines 17-20:

And we learnt the world in scraps from some ancient dingy maps 
Long discarded by the public-schools in town; 
And as nearly every book dated back to Captain Cook 
Our geography was somewhat upside-down. 
Now we read about the actual instruction going on in the school. This is going to be funny!

The students learnt the world in scraps, so in bits and pieces, from old dingy (= worn) maps.

Those maps were long discarded (= thrown away) by the better schools in town.

So now we know that the old bark school is in a rural area, not in a town.

All the books that the school uses are from the time that Australia was visited by the English Captain Cook. That was in 1770 and marked the first time people from Europe visited East Australia. (West Australia had already been visited by the Dutch over a century before that.)

Those first maps and books about Australia were somewhat upside-down: They didn’t have all the details in the right place yet.

Lines 21-24:
It was “in the book” and so – well, at that we’d let it go, 
For we never would believe that print could lie; 
And we all learnt pretty soon that when we came out at noon 
“The sun is in the south part of the sky.” 
The students knew some things that were written about in the books better, but they let it go. They didn’t say anything, because they were taught that books never lie: everything written in books is true.

One of the things that was written in their school books was clearly untrue. It said that the sun stands in the southern part of the sky when you look at it in the afternoon, but that is true in England and in all of the northern hemisphere. However, in Australia which is in the southern hemisphere the sun is in the north part of the sky in the afternoon.

You can see this in this diagram:

Maybe a nice lesson to take home with you: Don’t automatically believe your teachers or your school books or any book! There may be things in that they say that aren’t true. Always check your own facts.

Lines 25-28:

And Ireland! that was known from the coast-line to Athlone: 
We got little information re the land that gave us birth; 
Save that Captain Cook was killed (and was very likely grilled) 
And “the natives of New Holland are the lowest race on earth”. 
Because their books were from the motherland (England), and their teacher was Irish, they knew everything about Ireland, but not much about Australia, which was their own country.

It also said in their books that Captain Cook was killed and probably grilled (cooked) by the natives of Australia. Australia was called New Holland for almost two centuries after the Dutch visited there for the first time in 1606.

There were native people in Australia, the Aborigines, and they had a bad reputation with the European explorers, and later, settlers. That wasn’t so strange, as clashes broke out between the Aborigines and the English settlers who claimed Australia as their property. In any case, the students of the bark school find in their school books that the natives were the lowest race on earth, meaning they were mean fellows.

Lines 29-32:

And a woodcut, in its place, of the same degraded race 
Seemed a lot more like a camel than the blackfellows that we knew; 
Jimmy Bullock, with the rest, scratched his head and gave it best; 
But his faith was sadly shaken by a bobtailed kangaroo. 

The pictures in the school books were pretty dreadful too. If you’ve ever seen old pictures made in Europe about people and animals in exotic new lands, you might have a few laughs. Europeans had never seen kangaroos, and not aborigines either, and their first pictures of them were weird.

Here in the poem the students look at a woodcut made of the Aborigines (“the … degraded race” = inferior people) that look more like camels.

A student, Jimmy Bullock, wanted to believe those pictures were realistic, but then he saw one of a bobtailed (= with a short tail) kangaroo, which made him lose his faith (= disappointed him). Em, yeah, kangaroos have long tails.

Lines 33-36:

But the old bark school is gone, and the spot it stood upon 
Is a cattle-camp in winter where the curlew’s cry is heard; 
There’s a brick school on the flat, but a schoolmate teaches that, 
For, about the time they built it, our old master was “transferred”. 

The school is gone now. In its place there is now an animal farm and you can hear the call of the curlew (= a kind of bird).

There is a real school building on the plains, made of brick (= stone). And a fellow student of the speaker of the poem teaches there. The old master was transferred, which is a nice way of saying he lost his job.

Lines 37-40:

But the bark school comes again with exchanges ‘cross the plain – 
With the Out-Back Advertiser; and my fancy roams at large 
When I read of passing stock, of a western mob or flock, 
With “James Bullock”, “Grey”, or “Henry Dale” in charge. 

However the old bark school is far from forgotten. The speaker is reminded of the old school every time he opens some local newspaper (The Out-Back Advertiser) and he reads about transports of goods or animals (“passing stock”, a “mob” or a “flock”), managed by his old schoolmates.

And when he reads “Grey,” he naturally thinks of the old horse that they used to ride.

Lines 41-44:

And I think how Jimmy went from the old bark school content, 
With his “eddication” finished, with his pack-horse after him; 
And perhaps if I were back I would take the self-same track, 
For I wish my learning ended when the Master “finished” Jim. 

And his old friend Jimmy Bullock (now called James) left the school to work with his horse (his “pack-horse after him”; a pack horse is one that carries goods). Jimmy was happy to have finished his education, but from the way he pronounces that word you can see that Jimmy didn’t become a sophisticated scholar.

The speaker also says that he would have liked to do the same thing as Jimmy, that is leave the school when he felt his education there was finished. But of course he continued studying a lot more.

And the last line is a joke on the word finish. Because that can also mean kill. The teacher of the old bark school finished Jim, which means that he more or less killed the students’ capacity for learning (because he was such a terrible teacher).

By the way, please note that girl students are absent from this poem, and we can safely assume that there were no girls taught at the old bark school whatsoever.

I like this poem, how about you? It’s different, isn’t it?

More Back to School poems here.