Afternoon in School - the last lesson

<SPAN name="startofbook"></SPAN> <h3 class="smallgap" title="III. Afternoon in School">III<br /><span class="smc">Afternoon in School</span><br /><span class="allsc">THE LAST LESSON</span></h3> <div class="stanza"> <div><span class="smc">When</span> will the bell ring, and end this weariness?</div> <div>How long have they tugged the leash, and strained apart</div> <div>My pack of unruly hounds: I cannot start</div> <div>Them again on a quarry of knowledge they hate to hunt,</div> <div>I can haul them and urge them no more.</div> <div>No more can I endure to bear the brunt</div> <div>Of the books that lie out on the desks: a full three score</div> <div>Of several insults of blotted page and scrawl</div> <div>Of slovenly work that they have offered me.</div> <div>I am sick, and tired more than any thrall</div> <div>Upon the woodstacks working weariedly.</div> <span class="ns"><br /></span></div> <!-- stanza --> <div class="stanza"> <div class="i12"><span class="ns">                        </span>And shall I take</div> <div>The last dear fuel and heap it on my soul</div> <div>Till I rouse my will like a fire to consume</div> <div>Their dross of indifference, and burn the scroll</div> <div>Of their insults in punishment?—I will not!</div> <div>I will not waste myself to embers for them,</div> <div>Not all for them shall the fires of my life be hot, <SPAN name="png.070" id="png.070" href="#png.070"><span class="pagenum"><span class="ns">[p. </span>lxiv<span class="ns">]</span></span></SPAN></div> <div>For myself a heap of ashes of weariness, till sleep</div> <div>Shall have raked the embers clear: I will keep</div> <div>Some of my strength for myself, for if I should sell</div> <div>It all for them, I should hate <span class="nw">them—</span></div> <div class="i4"><span class="ns">        </span>—I will sit and wait for the bell.</div> </div><!-- stanza --> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />