The Valiant tastes of Death but once

Shakespeare's Julius Caesar:

Cowards die many times before their deaths;
The valiant never taste death but once.
Of all the wonders that I have yet heard,
It seems to me most strange that men should fear,
Seeing that death, a necessary end,
Will come when it come.


Richard Clancey was the teacher that gave me the world through the sharing of his passion for literature. For three years I had the privilege of being one of his students.
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I remember the smell of chalk, wooden desks and old books. I remember sitting in tightly packed rows of desks, while we read from a play, or watched one of our many debates. But I don't remember boring vocabulary lists and long droning lectures on grammar.

Mr. Clancey's room was more than a classroom; it was a sanctuary where we could explore literature, and the ideas that drove it. It was a battlefield where in debates passion could trump logic, where we tested and formed our own beliefs and ideals.

Mr. Clancey was more than a Teacher, he was our Moderator, our Mentor and our Friend. We were given the gift of being taught by someone who truly cared for us. Someone who shared his wisdom and experience happily. Mr. Clancey's legacy is the passion that he gave his students for something so generically called 'English'.

In his obituary a line was quoted from the "The Parting Glass", an old Irish (drinking) song. I've copied it below with a few more lines from the verse.


Of all the comrades e'er I had, they're sorry for my going away.
And all the sweethearts e'er I had, they wish me one more day to stay.

But since it falls unto my lot that I should go and you should not I'll gently rise and softly call, good night and joy be with you all. Fill to him the parting glass.