Our Profession and Other Poems | Page 8

groan.
If you would be forever free?From tyrant so severe,?Watch every thought before you're caught,?For he is hovering near.
Your every word guard with the sword?Of truth, which never fails,?Its honor's sung in every tongue,?Its power e'er prevails.
Act well your part, and keep your heart?Free from the tares he sows,?For at the end like traitor friend?He leaves you with your woes.
Thus Habit mars with wounds and scars?The favored of our race,?Transforms the mind that God designed?Should be the dwelling place
Of noble thought with heaven fraught?Into a sterile plain,?Whose atmosphere is dank and drear--?A wild chaotic brain.
Man scarce may be entirely free?From wiles and tricks and snares,?Whose stealthy forms and subtle charms?Approach us unawares.
Our eyes are blind or not inclined?To see that powerful hand,?That silently, yet forcibly?Gives us its strong command.
LIFE'S EMERGENCIES.
How strangely dark are the vapors?That sometimes obscure the way,?Ere the light of truth advances?To the noon of a perfect day.
As the unforeseen approaches?In stealth from ambushed retreat,?The mettle of soul is summoned?Its emergencies to meet.
To shrink by its sudden coming,?To surrender our control?Without a struggle for vantage,?Betrays a weakness of soul.
The conflicts with emergencies?We meet in our daily call,?Give strength or death to moral worth?As we conquer them or fall.
To meet at once with valor true?The attack from an ambuscade,?In moral strife, or bloody war,?Hath many a hero made.
Who has not trained himself to meet?The vicissitudes that arise?Upon the course of life's stern race,?Must fail to secure its prize.

To hold a pessimistic view,?And see the world as darkly "blue,"?And feel mankind is false, untrue,?Is not a just conclusion;?But Truth demands that Hope shall wear?No false rose in her silken hair,?To hide Deceit, Fraud, and Despair,?That feed on wild Delusion.
STRAND DESPAIR.
The wrecks that lie on Strand Despair,?Should serve as buoys on life's stern seas?To guide the voyager safely, where?He may escape the tides and breeze?That drive to whirlpools, bars, and rocks,?Where human vessels oft impinge?And leave a ruin that but mocks?The pleadings of persuasion's hinge.
An idle mind, companions base,?A shrinking from a duty known,?A sly deceit, a brazen face,?A lying tongue, a sullen tone,?Lead toward a wreck on Strand Despair,?And none but self can move the helm?To change the course for scenes more fair,?To save from storms that overwhelm.
INDULGENCE.
An alarm is sounding through the land?That tells of a stronger foe?Than that which marched on Lexington,?To strike a fatal blow?At the liberties our sires did claim?For themselves and all mankind,?For this foe is a product of deceit?And sophistry combined.
Its victims fall by the smiling ways?Of a charmed environment?That lures him on to neglect and sin,?And to final banishment?Of the vital spark of an earnest man,?And all that is noble and true,?To the effete round of nothingness?Which honor and strength will subdue.
No Spartan Helen of beauty and fame,?No mermaid with winsome face,?No Siren that sings an alluring song,?No Pandora in her grace,?Can soothe and charm to destruction's retreat,?Like the foe that robs of power?To meet the needs of life's true aim,?The requirements of each hour.
It has filled our courts, our prisons, our jails,?And filled our almshouses, too,?Itself and distress walk hand in hand,?No crimes but its victims will do;?Though it seems like a true and trusty friend?'Tis a tyrant in disguise,?It leads to distrust and uncertainty,?It wins no enduring prize.
In homes it leads to disorder wild,?In school, to defiance of laws,?In nations, to strife on bloody fields,?In man, to destruction's jaws;?In business its office is but to destroy,?In friendship, brings lack of respect,?In love, oft a maddened, frenzied heart?That can never endure neglect.
Parents, true kindness holds steady hand,?Judges, know justice is kind,?Teachers, remember the work for you?Is to strengthen heart and mind.?Kindness, dethroned by lack of control,?Ruins our girls and our boys,?Firmness is noble, honest, and true,?Indulgence only destroys.
THE TEACHER'S SOLILOQUY.
And so another week has gone,?And I once more am left alone?Within my silent room;?My mind is worn by fervent care,?And, languishing, it needs repair?For duties yet to come.
From all the cares which come on me?I cannot be entirely free?Thro' all this mortal life;?But cares imported from abroad?Make much more ponderous the load,?And cause more bitter strife.
With patient labor, day by day,?I work along this toilsome way?Intent on doing good;?My pupils' hearts I would inspire?With noble thoughts and strong desire?For intellectual food.
I note the various schemes and arts,?As prompted by the different hearts,?They lead to different deeds.?As deeds and hearts will correspond,?By observation it is found?There should be different meeds.
The wish made known for some will do,?And some a gentle frown would rue?And feel extremely sad;?While others need a sterner look,?A reprimand, or sharp rebuke,?And sometimes e'en the rod.
Most gladly would I hail the day?When children cheerfully obey,?(If e'er that day shall come,)?But ere that happy day I see,?A reformation there must be?In government at home.
And what is my reward for all?This watchful care and earnest toil?To train the youthful mind??From Ignorance it draws