And fathers dull and tame.
Pitying the boy, I thus address'd
The pedagogue of verse—
"Why doth he not, Sir, like the rest,
Your epigrams rehearse?"
"Sir!" answered thus the aged man,
"He's not in Nature's debt;
His ears so tight are seal'd, he can-
Not learn his alphabet."
"Why not?" I cried:—whereat to me