margaret's memory

it was 1995, the second official day of my college life, and it was 7am. the block was still cursing our luck for getting such an early class. and then, an old man enters the room, asks if this was the COMM 1 class TFQ (i think), then proceeds writing this poem on the board:

Spring and Fall: To a Young Child
by Gerard Manley Hopkins

Márgarét, are you gríeving
Over Goldengrove unleaving?
Leáves, líke the things of man, you
With your fresh thoughts care for, can you?
Ah! ás the heart grows older
It will come to such sights colder
By and by, nor spare a sigh
Though worlds of wanwood leafmeal lie;
And yet you wíll weep and know why.
Now no matter, child, the name:
Sórrow's spríngs áre the same.
Nor mouth had, no nor mind, expressed
What heart heard of, ghost guessed:
It ís the blight man was born for,
It is Margaret you mourn for.

he then says, "memorize this entire poem, complete with the punctuation marks. you will have a quiz on this on friday."

thus we were introduced to fr. alfeo g. nudas, s.j.

almost every week we were introduced to a new poem to memorize, mainly shakespearean sonnets; plus "elementary" rules on grammar. 7am of every meeting, on the dot, we would have our quizzes on half a sheet of yellow pad (he didn't believe in using the blue book).

yet, despite our initial fear that he would be a punisher prof, he in fact won us over with his unexpected remarks ("all the boys sitting on one side must be gays, while all the girls sitting on the other side must be lesbians; there is only one normal pair in here [ton & ging]"), self-deprecating humor (clutching his chest when someone pointed to him as "old"), and his low yet melodic voice ("good morning class, good morning")...

he was already an old man that time, probably around 70 plus. as i've mentioned before, he might have died in these past 10 years without me knowing it.

what's the point of this post? i just want to honor his memory as much as i can.