AFTER THE LAST LESSON

How wonderful he seems to me, Now that the lessons are all read, And, smiling through the stillness dim, The child I taught lies dead! I was his teacher yesterday— Now, could his silent lips unclose, What lessons might he teach to me Of the vast truth he knows! Last week he bent his anxious brows O’er maps with puzzling Poles and Zone; Now he, perchance, knows more than all The scientists have known. “Death humbleth all”—ah, say not so! The man we scorn, the child we teach Death in a moment places far Past all earth’s lore can reach. Death bringeth men unto their own! He tears aside Life’s thin disguise, And man’s true greatness, all unknown, Stands clear before our eyes.