AMERICAN POETS
EDWIN MARKHAM
VACHEL LINDSAY
JOAQUIN MILLER
ALAN SEEGER
EDWIN MARKHAM
[Footnote: The poetical selections appearing in this chapter are used
by permission of the publishers, Doubleday, Page & Co., and are taken
from the following works: The Shoes of Happiness and The Man with the
Hoe.]
A STUDY OF HAPPINESS IN POVERTY, IN SERVICE, IN LOWLINESS; AND A BIT OF
"SCRIPT" FOR THE JOURNEY OF LIFE
Edwin Markham is the David of modern poetry. He is biblical in the
simplicity of his style. He, like the poet of old, tended sheep on "The
Suisun Hills," and of it he speaks:
"Long, long ago I was a shepherd boy,
My young heart touched with wonder and wild joy."
THE SHOES OF HAPPINESS.
None less than William Dean Howells has said of him, "Excepting always
my dear Whitcomb Riley, Edwin Markham is the first of the Americans."
"The greatest poet of the century" is the estimate of Ella Wheeler
Wilcox; and Francis Grierson adds, "Edwin Markham is one of the
greatest poets of the age, and the greatest poet of democracy." Dr.
David G. Downey makes his estimate of the poet, in his book, Modern
Poets and Christian Teaching, a little broader and deeper in the two
phrases: "He is not more poet than prophet," and, "He is the poet of
humanity--of man in relations." And of them all I feel that the latter
estimate is best put, for Edwin Markham is more than "the poet of
democracy"; he is the poet of all humanity, down on the earth where
humanity lives.
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