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.

...the night will always win...Elbow...

The night has a thousand eyes,
And the day but one;
Yet the light of the bright world dies
With the dying of the sun.

The mind has a thousand eyes,
And the heart but one;
Yet the light of a whole life dies
When love is done.
- Francis William Bourdillon

'Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight' - Vachel Lindsay

It is portentous, and a thing of state That here at midnight, in our little town 

A mourning figure walks, and will not rest,   

Near the old court-house pacing up and down, Or by his homestead, or in shadowed yards

He lingers where his children used to play,   Or through the market, on the well-worn 

stones   He stalks until the dawn-stars burn away. A bronzed, lank man! His suit of 

ancient black, A famous high top-hat and plain worn shawl

Make him the quaint great figure that men love, The prairie-lawyer, master of us all. 

He cannot sleep upon his hillside now. He is among us: as in times before!   And we who

toss and lie awake for long, Breathe deep, and start, to see him pass the door. His head is 

bowed. He thinks of men and kings.   Yea, when the sick world cries, how can he sleep?

Too many peasants fight, they know not why;   Too many homesteads in black terror weep.

The sins of all the war-lords burn his heart.   He sees the dreadnaughts scouring every main.

He carries on his shawl-wrapped shoulders now   The bitterness, the folly and the pain.

He cannot rest until a spirit-dawn Shall come; the shining hope of Europe free:   A league of 

sober folk, the Workers’ Earth,   Bringing long peace to Cornland, Alp and Sea.      

It breaks his heart that things must murder still,   That all his hours of travail here for men 

Seem yet in vain. And who will bring white peace   That he may sleep upon his hill again?

...America...the Excerpts of Phillis Wheatley and Jupiter Hammon...04jul14...

Contemplating early African American poets of the Revolutionary Age this Fourth of July

Phillis Wheatley's "On Imagination" (1767~73) Excerpts - Full Text Here

"Thy various works, imperial queen, we see,
How bright their forms! how deck'd with pomp by thee!
Thy wond'rous acts in beauteous order stand,
And all attest how potent is thine hand.

From star to star the mental optics rove,
Measure the skies, and range the realms above.
There in one view we grasp the mighty whole,
Or with new worlds amaze th' unbounded soul.

Though Winter frowns to Fancy's raptur'd eyes
The fields may flourish, and gay scenes arise;
The frozen deeps may break their iron bands,
And bid their waters murmur o'er the sands.

Before thy throne the subject-passions bow,
Of subject-passions sov'reign ruler Thou,
At thy command joy rushes on the heart,
And through the glowing veins the spirits dart."

Jupiter Hammon's "An Address to Ms. Phillis Wheatley" (1778) 
Excerpts - Full Text Here

"O, come you pious youth: adore
The wisdom of thy God.
In bringing thee from distant shore,
To learn His holy word.

While thousands tossed by the sea,
And others settled down,
God's tender mercy set thee free,
From dangers still unknown.

Come you, Phillis, now aspire,
And seek the living God,
So step by step thou mayst go higher,
Till perfect in the word.

The humble soul shall fly to God,
And leave the things of time,
Start forth as 'twere at the first word,
To taste things more divine."

Journey of a Slave 1863 - Library of Congress