The Carr Academy ii

It was the old grey Carr Academy  
where she, all stately dressed in granite stone,  
waited to take and teach four-year-old-me  
but did I hear my forebears fearful moans?  
  
A school from the harsh Victorian age  
erected in Eighteen-Seventy-Four,  
when black-slate and chalk ruled not paper page  
and teachers taught class by rote, lore and fear
  
My great-grandmother attended this school  
as did four generations after her,  
back then you'd be flogged for playing the fool  
or not addressing the Masters as, sir...  
  
The school's still in use the violence long gone  
But what would walls tell with my ear, pressed on?