Venice masks

Friday 29 June 2012

Blind Children - Israel Zangwill

Laughing, the blind boys
Run round their college lawn,
Playing such games of buff
Over its dappled grass.

See the blind frolicsome
Girls in blue pinafores
Turning their skipping-ropes.

How full and rich a world
Theirs to inhabit is —
Sweet scent of grass and bloom,
Playmates' glad symphony,
Cool touch of western wind,
Sunshine's divine caress.

How should they know or feel
They are in darkness?

But, O the miracle!
If a Redeemer came,
Laid finger on their eyes —
One touch, and what a world,
New-born in loveliness!

Spaces of green and sky,
Hulls of white cloud adrift,
Ivy-grown college walls.
Shining loved faces.

What a dark world — who knows?
Ours to inhabit is!
One touch, and what a strange
Glory might burst on us,
What a hid universe!

Do we sport carelessly,
Blindly upon the verge
Of an Apocalypse?

Israel Zangwill (1864 – 1926) England

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