They flash upon that inward eye

Long back in primary school, we students of a rather inspiring English Teacher, let me call him Mr.A, were instructed to learn by rote classical poetry of days long gone by. We did this dutifully and sometimes the words were so stuck up in the back or our minds that we even mumbled them when asleep, so our parents joked.
Until one day I questioned this teacher's wisdom of rote learning.
"What use is learning-poetry-by-heart", I asked. "Its not going to supplement our knowledge in any way!"
At this point Mr. A's eyes turned grave.
And then his eyes shining bright, he said, "Boy, you know, once you are out of school, out of college, out of university, the one thing that you will remember long after you have forgotten the theories of Einstein and complex mathematical equations, will be these poems you have learnt. And even if you do remember a lot of the stuff that you did learn, the only one thing that is going to give you pleasure right to your old age will be these poems and you will look back at them in an enlightened way."
Pondering over the wisdom of Mr. A's words now, I guess he was right. I might find the theoretical stuff of science and maths, I learnt back in the school days useful in some aspsects at certain moments of my life, but the poetry I learnt has given me pleasure and a blissful kind of satisfaction at times both high and low.
And sometimes I find myself subconsciously wording Wordsworth's line "They flash upon that inward eye....which is the bliss of solitude.." And I smile to myself at the truth in Mr. A's words.
Yes, even when I grow old I shall remember those soothing ,calming words of classical poetry and appreciate the gift it is to mankind.