Quotes by Edwin Markham

The Contents The Man with the Hoe 15 A Look into the Gulf 19 Brotherhood 21 Song of the Followers of Pan 22 Little Brothers of the Ground 23 Wail of the Wandering Dead 25 A Prayer 28 The Poet 30 The Whirlwind Road 32 The Desire of Nations 33 The Elf Child 39 The Goblin Laugh 40 Poetry 41 A Meeting 42 Infinite Depths 43 A Leaf from the Devil’s Jest-Book 44 The Paymaster 46 The Last Furrow 47 In the Storm 49 After Reading Shakspere 50 The Hidden Valley 52 The Poets 53 Love’s Vigil 54 Two at a Fireside 56 The Butterfly 57 To William Watson 58 Keats A-Dying 59 Man 60 The Cricket 61 In High Sierras 62 The Wharf of Dreams 63 To Louise Michel 65 Shepherd Boy and Nereid 66 A Song at the Start 68 My Comrade 70 A Lyric of the Dawn 71 Joy of the Morning 80 Youth and Time 81 A Satyr Song 83 A Cry in the Night 84 Fays 85 In Death Valley 86 At Dawn 87 “Follow Me” 88 In Poppy Fields 89 The Joy of the Hills 90 The Invisible Bride 92 The Valley 94 The Climb of Life 95 The Tragedy 97 Divine Vision 98 Midsummer Noon 99 One Life, One Law 100 Griefs 101 An Old Road 102 The New Comers 103 Music 104 Fay Song 105 The Old Earth 106 Divine Adventure 107 Song Made Flesh 109 To High-born Poets 110 The Toilers 112 On the Gulf of Night 114 A Harvest Song 116 Two Taverns 118 The Man under the Stone 119 Song to the Divine Mother 121 The Flying Mist 127 From the Hand of a Child 129 At the Meeting of Seven Valleys 131 The Rock-Breaker 132 These Songs Will Perish 133 The Man with the Hoe The Man with the Hoe _Written after seeing Millet’s World-Famous Painting_ God made man in His own image, in the image of God made He him.--_Genesis._ Bowed by the weight of centuries he leans Upon his hoe and gazes on the ground, The emptiness of ages in his face, And on his back the burden of the world. Who made him dead to rapture and despair, A thing that grieves not and that never hopes, Stolid and stunned, a brother to the ox? Who loosened and let down this brutal jaw? Whose was the hand that slanted back this brow? Whose breath blew out the light within this brain? Is this the Thing the Lord God made and gave To have dominion over sea and land; To trace the stars and search the heavens for power; To feel the passion of Eternity? Is this the Dream He dreamed who shaped the suns And pillared the blue firmament with light? Down all the stretch of Hell to its last gulf There is no shape more terrible than this-- More tongued with censure of the world’s blind greed-- More filled with signs and portents for the soul-- More fraught with menace to the universe. What gulfs between him and the seraphim! Slave of the wheel of labor, what to him Are Plato and the swing of Pleiades?