Classic Poem

XLVI.

There the pale Orphan, whose unequal strength
Loathes the incessant toil it must pursue,
Pines for the cool sweet evening's twilight length,
The sunny play-hour, and the morning's dew:
Worn with its cheerless life's monotonous hue,
Bowed down, and faint, and stupified it stands;
Each half-seen object reeling in its view —
While its hot, trembling, languid little hands
Mechanically heed the Task-master's commands.

XLVII.

There, sounds of wailing grief and painful blows
Offend the ear, and startle it from rest;
(While the lungs gasp what air the place bestows;)
Or misery's joyless vice, the ribald jest,
Breaks the sick silence: staring at the guest
Who comes to view their labour, they beguile
The unwatched moment; whispers half supprest
And mutterings low, their faded lips defile, —
While gleams from face to face a strange and sullen smile.

XLVIII.

These then are his Companions: he, too young
To share their base and saddening merriment,
Sits by: his little head in silence hung;
His limbs cramped up; his body weakly bent;
Toiling obedient, till long hours so spent
Produce Exhaustion's slumber, dull and deep.
The Watcher's stroke, — bold — sudden — violent, —
Urges him from that lethargy of sleep,
And bids him wake to Life, — to labour and to weep!

XLIX.

But the day hath its End. Forth then he hies
With jaded, faltering step, and brow of pain;
Creeps to that shed, — his Home , — where happy lies
The sleeping babe that cannot toil for Gain;
Where his remorseful Mother tempts in vain
With the best portion of their frugal fare:
Too sick to eat — too weary to complain —
He turns him idly from the untasted share,
Slumbering sinks down unfed, and mocks her useless care.

L.

Weeping she lifts, and lays his heavy head
(With all a woman's grieving tenderness)
On the hard surface of his narrow bed;
Bends down to give a sad unfelt caress,
And turns away; — willing her God to bless,
That, weary as he is, he need not fight
Against that long-enduring bitterness,
The V OLUNTARY L ABOUR of the Night,
But sweetly slumber on till day's returning light.