Virtue must by terror  cruel be ruled

If they ordered children to be good
We thought it must be possible and right
So virtue must by will power   be oruled

We assumed that adults understood
Our feelings and our nature and our sight
When they ordered children to be good

Our selves were growing like the flowers in bud
Tender, wild and vulnerable to blight
When virtue was by will power  harshly oruled

Yet school is   a mere prison in the flood
Of growth towards the sun and its great light
Yet they ordered children to be good

By watching other people and their moods
We noticed how obsessively they cried
That virtue can by will power  be  ruled

They frightened us by saying when we died
God would judge us harshly   in his Pride
If they  believed that fear would make us good
Virtue must by terror  cruel be  ruled

And that can’t be right