Poems (Jackson)/The Teacher
THE TEACHER.
HE people listened, with short, indrawn breath,And eyes that were too steady set for tearsThus one man's speech rolled off great loads of fearsFrom every heart, as sunlight scatterethThe clouds; hard doubts, which had been born of death,Shone out as rain-drops shine when rainbow clearsThe air. "O teacher," then I said, "thy years,Are they not joy? Each word that issueth From out thy lips, doth it return to blessThy own heart many fold?"With wearinessOf tone he answered, and almost with scorn,"I am, of all, most lone in loneliness;I starve with hunger treading out their corn;I die of travail while their souls are born."