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 | The Poetical Works of Robert Story |  |
You long have known me “skilled to rule,”
As master of a village school.
A useful post, but thankless still—
Of which the ancients thought so ill,
They held the man to whom 'twas given,
An object of the wrath of heaven.
—By fools beset, by idiots judged,
His pains despised, his payments grudged,
Rivalled by things whom juster doom
Had placed in farm-yard or at loom,
(For 'tis as true as parsons preach
That men who ne'er were taught, can teach!)
Hard is his lot, to own the truth,
Condemned to train our rising youth.
Yet even in this picture dark
The eye some streaks of light may mark—
The common mob, whose grovelling nature
Would for Hyperion choose a Satyr,
By loftier mind or station awed,
Will sometimes properly applaud,
Following, like sheep, the judging few—
And lucky Merit gets his due.
As master of a village school.
A useful post, but thankless still—
Of which the ancients thought so ill,
They held the man to whom 'twas given,
An object of the wrath of heaven.
—By fools beset, by idiots judged,
His pains despised, his payments grudged,
109
Had placed in farm-yard or at loom,
(For 'tis as true as parsons preach
That men who ne'er were taught, can teach!)
Hard is his lot, to own the truth,
Condemned to train our rising youth.
Yet even in this picture dark
The eye some streaks of light may mark—
The common mob, whose grovelling nature
Would for Hyperion choose a Satyr,
By loftier mind or station awed,
Will sometimes properly applaud,
Following, like sheep, the judging few—
And lucky Merit gets his due.
| The Poetical Works of Robert Story | |