“The English Teacher”
“What drama and excitement there was in the classroom when Diepen first opened the pages of the great poem and begin to declaim its lines. His free left hand swept up above his head in vigorous gesticulation, pausing there momentarily before flipping up in a snap so that the palm faced the ceiling. The teacher fronted the class squarely, drew up his body as if bearding a foe and seeking to intimidate him with size, swelled out his chest, filled his cheeks with air, and then fired fusillades of language that sounded Scandinavian and could never have been recognized as the earliest form of English by anyone not knowledgeable in the subject. Warming to his task, Diepen thrust an imaginary sword out toward a kid in the front row, causing him to feign a cowering retreat back into his chair; he slashed the air above the third-row boys as he marched about the room, expounding the ancient poetry without a pause.”