Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry.
Volume III. Sorrow and Consolation. 1904. | | | | VI. Consolation | | Blind | | Israel Zangwill (1864–1926) |
| | | LAUGHING, the blind boys | |
| Run ’round their college lawn, | |
| Playing such games of buff | |
| Over its dappled grass! | |
| |
| See the blind frolicsome | 5 |
| Girls in blue pinafores, | |
| Turning their skipping ropes! | |
| |
| How full and rich a world | |
| Theirs to inhabit is! | |
| Sweet scent of grass and bloom, | 10 |
| Playmates’ glad symphony. | |
| Cool touch of western wind, | |
| Sunshine’s divine caress. | |
| How should they know or feel | |
| They are in darkness? | 15 |
| |
| But—O the miracle! | |
| If a Redeemer came, | |
| Laid fingers on their eyes— | |
| One touch—and what a world | |
| New born in loveliness! | 20 |
| |
| Spaces of green and sky, | |
| Hulls of white cloud adrift, | |
| Ivy-grown college walls, | |
| Shining loved faces! | |
| |
| What a dark world—who knows? | 25 |
| Ours to inhabit is! | |
| One touch, and what a strange | |
| Glory might burst on us! | |
| What a hid universe! | |
| |
| Do we sport carelessly, | 30 |
| Blindly, upon the verge | |
| Of an Apocalypse? | | | | |
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