Edwin Markham (1852–1940) was an American poet. From 1923 to 1931 he was Poet Laureate of Oregon. Edwin Markham was born in Oregon City, Oregon, and was the youngest of 10 children; his parents divorced shortly after his birth. At the age of four, he moved to Lagoon Valley, an area northeast of San Francisco; there, he lived with his sister and mother. He worked on the family’s farm beginning at twelve. Although his mother was opposed to his pursuing higher education, he studied literature at the California College in Vacaville, California, and received his teacher’s certificate in 1870. In 1872 he graduated from San Jose State Normal School and in 1873 finished his studies of classics at Christian College in Santa Rosa. He went by “Charles” until about 1895, when he was about 43, when he started using “Edwin.”
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The thing that is incredible is life itself. Why should we be here in this sun-illuminated universe? Why should there be green earth under our feet?
—Edwin Markham
Topics: Faith
We all are blind until we see
That in the human plan
Nothing is worth the making if
It does not make the man.
Why build these cities glorious
If man unbuilded goes?
In vain we build the world, unless
The builder also grows.
—Edwin Markham
And when he fell in whirlwind, he went down
As when a lordly cedar, green with boughs,
Goes down with a great shout upon the hills,
And leaves a lonesome place against the sky.
—Edwin Markham
We have committed the Golden Rule to memory; let us now commit it to life.
—Edwin Markham
I fear the vermin that shall undermine
Senate and citadel and school and shrine.
—Edwin Markham
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