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.

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