THE TEACHER
by: Leslie Pinckney Hill
(1880-1960)
 ORD, who
am I to teach the way
To little children day by day,
So prone myself to go astray?
-
- I teach them KNOWLEDGE, but I know
How faint they flicker and how low
The candles of my knowledge glow.
-
- I teach them POWER to will and do,
But only now to learn anew
My own great weakness through and through.
-
- I teach them LOVE for all mankind
And all God's creatures, but I find
My love comes lagging far behind.
-
- Lord, if their guide I still must be,
Oh let the little children see
The teacher leaning hard on Thee.
|
"The Teacher" is reprinted
from The Book of American Negro Poetry. Ed. James Weldon
Johnson. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co., 1922. |
MORE POEMS BY LESLIE PINCKNEY HILL |
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