The Cricket
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 roun-delay,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 its way!
Faintly the light breaks o’er 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.
Words in this poem
- seaward a.
- Directed or situated toward the sea. Donne.
- fading n.
- An Irish dance; also, the burden of a song.
- astir adv.
- Stirring; in a state of activity or motion; out of bed. [Pref. a- + stir.]
- starlit a.
- Lighted by the stars; starlight.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Cricket is in the public domain. This text is taken from The man with the hoe, and other poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #67012; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Edwin Markham, The Cricket, in The Man with the Hoe, and Other Poems (1899), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #67012, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/markham-man-with-hoe/the-cricket.html, id L24764.
Form and metre
The Cricket is 14 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%).
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 ABBAACCA dayA · shoreB · oarB · delayA · grayA · harkC · darkC · wayA
- 2 ABBCAC oatsA · astirB · herB · timeC · notesA · rhymeC
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| The twilight is the morning of his day, | 10 | ·/···/˘··· |
| While sleep drops seaward from the fading shore, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| With purpling sail and dip of silver oar, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| He cheers the shadowed time with roun-delay, | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| Until the dark east softens into gray. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Now as the noisy hours are coming--hark! | 10 | ···/˘/·/˘· |
| His song dies gently--it is growing dark-- | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| His night, with its one star, is on its way! | 10 | ·········· |
| Faintly the light breaks o’er the blowing oats-- | 10 | /˘·····/˘· |
| Sleep, little brother, sleep: I am astir, | 10 | ·/˘/˘···˘/ |
| We worship Song, and servants are of her-- | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| I in the bright hours, thou in shadow-time; | 10 | ····/··/·· |
| Lead thou the starlit night with merry notes, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| And I will lead the clamoring day with rhyme. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.