Our Profession and Other Poems — Text and Context

A Teacher's Voice in Verse

Barhite's professional identity shapes the collection. The title poem "Our Profession" and others like "Duty Done" and "Incompetence" speak directly to educators. In "Discontent," he argues that dissatisfaction drives progress: "'Tis Discontent that gains the prize / In every useful art." This is not a personal lament but a pedagogical stance. The poems often use direct address and imperative verbs, as if instructing a classroom. The dedication to his mother credits her for leading him "to drink at the fountain of knowledge and truth," framing learning as a moral pursuit. However, the excerpts do not reveal whether the collection includes narrative or dramatic poems; most appear to be short, reflective lyrics.

Politics and Moral Critique

Barhite engages with public issues. In "Our Politics," he quotes Senator John J. Ingalls—"The purification of politics is an iridescent dream"—then rebuts him: "Have the people lost their honesty?" The poem calls for unity and reform, ending with a metaphor of cleansing "Augean stables—politics— / May be cleansed by ballot's streams." This is the most explicitly political poem in the excerpts. Others, like "Selfishness," use harsh imagery: the selfish person should be "placed in some lonely, hollow tree, / And left to toad and bat and owl." Barhite's moral universe is clear, but the excerpts do not show whether he addresses specific events or figures beyond Ingalls.

Nature as Divine Art

Several poems focus on natural scenes. "Sunset" describes "the tints of expiring day" and calls the sky "God-painted." Barhite emphasizes design and purpose: "Of the order, the purpose, design, / In the pictures that hang in the sky." The poem ends with a wish that his soul may depart "at the close of the day, / When the glories of sunset appear." Other nature poems—"The Dandelion," "The Goldenrod," "Buttercups and Daisies"—are listed in the index but not excerpted. The excerpts suggest a consistent view of nature as a source of moral and spiritual lessons, but they do not reveal whether Barhite uses specific locations or scientific observations.

Barhite's poems are best approached as period documents of late-19th-century didactic verse. Readers interested in the intersection of education, moral philosophy, and amateur poetry will find a consistent voice. The collection's cataloging as Science Fiction & Utopias is misleading; the actual content is closer to occasional and reflective poetry. The index lists over 100 titles, so the excerpts represent only a fraction of the whole.

Holding this old collection, I remembered sitting on my grandfather’s porch, him reciting a verse about restless striving. It felt like a quiet nod to that same stubborn belief in progress through discontent I found later in Poems — Themes and Context. Both books hum with that earnest, unhurried voice, asking us to consider, not to rush.