13
THE DEAF SCHOOLMASTER.
- He cannot hear the skylark sing,
- The music of the wild bee's wing;
- The murmur of the plaining bough;
- A gentle whisper fairy low;
- The noise of falling waters near—
- All these have left his mournful ear.
- A sad, sad silence, whose worst power
- Is felt in others' gladdest hour.
- But, ah, to what can it not move
- Th' unconquerable strength of love!
- See how he bends above the page.
- For him—the child of his old age.
- The ear is deaf, the eye is dim,
- Yet anxious and alive for him.
- How deep and tender is the debt,
- Whose seal on that young heart is set;
- Little, perchance, may be the aid,
- Not so the fondness which essayed
- To help amid this learned coil.
- And smooth the youthful student's toil.
- Mid all the sorrow and the crime,
- Man's destiny from earliest time;
- Mid all that can debase, degrade,
- How beautiful this earth is made,
- By pure affection, deep and dear,
- Affection like that pictured here!
