The Poet
His home is in the heights: to himMen wage a battle weird and dim,Life is a mission stern as fate,And Song a dread apostolate.The toils of prophecy are his,To hail the coming centuries--To ease the steps and lift the loadOf souls that falter on the road.The perilous music that he hearsFalls from the vortice of the spheres.
He presses on before the race,And sings out of a silent place.Like faint notes of a forest birdOn heights afar that voice is heard;And the dim path he breaks to-dayWill some time be a trodden way.But when the race comes toiling onThat voice of wonder will be gone--Be heard on higher peaks afar,Moved upward with the morning star.
O men of earth, that wandering voiceStill goes the upward way: rejoice!
Words in this poem
- wage v. i.
- To bind one's self; to engage.
- apostolate n.
- The dignity, office, or mission, of an apostle; apostleship. [L. apostolatus, fr. apostolus. See Apostle.]
- falter v. t.
- To thrash in the chaff; also, to cleanse or sift, as barley.
- afar adv.
- At, to, or from a great distance; far away; -- often used with from preceding, or off following; as, he was seen from afar; I saw him afar off. [Pref. a-.(for on or of) + far.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Poet 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 Poet, 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-poet.html, id L24743.
Form and metre
The Poet is 22 lines in 3 stanzas. The rhyme scheme is AABBCCDDEE, complete in 2 of its 3 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%).
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
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 AABBCCDDEE himA · dimA · fateB · apostolateB · hisC · centuriesC · loadD · roadD · hearsE · spheresE
- 2 AABBCCDDEE raceA · placeA · birdB · heardB · dayC · wayC · onD · goneD · afarE · starE
- 3 AA voiceA · rejoiceA
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| His home is in the heights: to him | 8 | ········ |
| Men wage a battle weird and dim, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Life is a mission stern as fate, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And Song a dread apostolate. | 8 | ····˘/˘˘ |
| The toils of prophecy are his, | 8 | ···/˘˘·· |
| To hail the coming centuries-- | 8 | ···/˘/˘˘ |
| To ease the steps and lift the load | 8 | ········ |
| Of souls that falter on the road. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| The perilous music that he hears | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Falls from the vortice of the spheres. | 8 | ········ |
| He presses on before the race, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| And sings out of a silent place. | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Like faint notes of a forest bird | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| On heights afar that voice is heard; | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| And the dim path he breaks to-day | 8 | ········ |
| Will some time be a trodden way. | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| But when the race comes toiling on | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| That voice of wonder will be gone-- | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Be heard on higher peaks afar, | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| Moved upward with the morning star. | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| O men of earth, that wandering voice | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Still goes the upward way: rejoice! | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
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.