Higginson and Bigelow, comps. American Sonnets. 1891.
The CricketDavid Skaats Foster (18521920)
O
Dost tell thy story to the silent hours
While the dew falls upon the thirsty flowers!
What is the burden of thy ceaseless song?
A tale of love? or secrets that belong
To the dim solitudes of ruined towers,
Whose crumbling walls the ivy leaf embowers?
Or drolleries of Titania’s shadowy throng?
Thou art a friend, so ancient legends tell,
That with the power of mystic sorcery
Guardest the hearth where thou dost love to dwell,
And with thy quaint and pleasant company
The night’s deep loneliness thou dost dispel,
Thou merry chief of insect minstrelsy!