listen:to all about you, the music

Henry Lawson (1867 ~ 1922) is one of the preeminent poets of Australia, with over 25 collected works within his lifetime.  He was also deaf.  He had taken ill at the age of 9 where the decline in his hearing started with a severe fever.  His hearing radically diminished fully by the age of 14.  Attempts to restore his hearing, through the age of 20 were not successful.

Lawson's poems are fiercely republican in nature.

"After All" ~ 1896

The light of passion in dreamy eyes, and a page of truth well read,
The glorious thrill in a heart grown cold of the spirit I thought was dead,
A song that goes to a comrade's heart, and a tear of pride let fall --
And my soul is strong! and the world to me is a grand world after all!

Let our enemies go by their old dull tracks,
and theirs be the fault or shame
(The man is bitter against the world who has only himself to blame);
Let the darkest side of the past be dark, and only the good recall;
For I must believe that the world, my dear, is a kind world after all.

"The Shape of a Song" by Martin Wattenberg

It well may be that I saw too plain, and it may be I was blind;
But I'll keep my face to the dawning light,
though the devil may stand behind!
Though the devil may stand behind my back, I'll not see his shadow fall,
But read the signs in the morning stars of a good world after all.

Rest, for your eyes are weary, girl -- you have driven the worst away --
The ghost of the man that I might have been is gone from my heart to-day;
We'll live for life and the best it brings till our twilight shadows fall;
My heart grows brave, and the world, my girl, is a good world after all.

http://www.visualcomplexity.com/vc/blog/?p=811 - visualization of music for the hearing impaired.