The Cricket

By Edwin Markham 1852–1940 Edwin Markham

The twilight is the morning of his day.

While Sleep drops seaward from the fading shore,

With purpling sail and dip of silver oar,

He cheers the shadowed time with roundelay,

Until the dark east softens into gray.

Now as the noisy hours are coming—hark!

His song dies gently—it is growing dark—

His night, with its one star, is on the way!

Faintly the light breaks over the blowing oats—

Sleep, little brother, sleep: I am astir.

We worship Song, and servants are of her—

I in the bright hours, thou in shadow-time:

Lead thou the starlit night with merry notes,

And I will lead the clamoring day with rhyme.

Source: The Man with the Hoe and Other Poems (1921)

Biography

Once internationally famous as the author of the poem "The Man with the Hoe," Markham was a popular American literary figure during the first half of the twentieth century whose works espoused progressive social and spiritual beliefs. In contrast to the experimentalism and pessimism that generally characterized poetry of this era, Markham's quatrains, sonnets, and heroic verse celebrate peace, love, and socialist utopian reform. . . .

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