Gnome

Spend the years of learning squandering
Courage for the years of wandering
Through a world politely turning
From the loutishness of learning

Once I read this piece, I couldn't get it out of my head. 

I write copy for LivingSocial.com, that site that does Groupon-like deals. One of the deals I wrote recently was for a brewery in Sylva called Heinzelmännchen, named for a race of German gnomes that come out at night to complete humans' work, allowing said humans to laze about and enjoy a sort of carefree, whimsical existence. So, when I read this poem, which essentially calls for a kind of carefree existence, the title made complete sense.

As with anything Beckett related, I wouldn't say that the poem calls for whimsy, but rather, a call to embrace nothingness. To separate, to wander, to abandon society and its constant need to teach, one learns a great deal. To embrace this nothingness, to not have a plan or distinct path, is the freedom one needs to have the openness of mind learning truly requires. This poem really reminds me of the phrase, "The more I know, the more I know I don't know." 

Additionally, the poem could be read as a call to destroy the system. Not an anarchic call, mind you, but a challenge to the reader (or the student?) to fully consider the phrase "destruction is the truest form of creation." By destroying the known system, i.e. the school system, the student creates a new system, a new paradigm by which he or she learns. As we've learned, Beckett was no champion of formal education and this poem seems to place a higher emphasis on experiential learning rather that of lectures and tests.