Husbandman, for work prepare
Tender plants of promise fair;
Rise! around thee everywhere
Life's young spring-time claims thy care,
Willing heart, and hand.
Dig, manure, and prune, and train-
Suns, and dew, and vernal rain,
Seek from Heaven, nor seek in vain-
Flowers and fruits reward thy pain-
Fair the smiling land.
Break thou up the fallow ground,
With the will the way is found;
Faint not!-thorns and weeds abound-
Seeds of knowledge scatter round-
God shall give increase.
Father! God! we ask for bread,
Stones thou wilt not give instead-
Down thy promised Spirit shed-
Toil is vain, and hope is dead,
Till Thou quicken these.
We have seen-we daily see,
Plant of hope, some fair young tree,
In the soft winds waving free,
Green and full of sap is he-
Rich the promised bloom.
Look again! A hot simoom,
Scorches tree, and branch, and bloom-
Write in blood the drunkard's doom,
Quenched in misery, guilt, and gloom,
Finds an early tomb.
Janet Hamilton
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/to-teachers-of-the-young/
