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