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One thing shines clear in the heart's sweet reason,
One lightning over the chasm runs —
That to turn from love is the world's one treason
That darkens all the suns.

— Edwin Markham The Shoes of Happiness, and Other Poems (1913)

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More quotes by Edwin Markham

Bowed by the weight of centuries he leans
Upon his hoe and gazes on the ground,
The emptiness of ages in his face,
And on his back the burden of the world.

The Man with the Hoe and Other Poems (1899)

He drew a circle that shut me out —
Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout.
But Love and I had the wit to win:
We drew a circle that took him in.

The Shoes of Happiness, and Other Poems (1913)

I fear the vermin that shall undermine
Senate and citadel and school and shrine.

For over the world a dim hope hovers,
The hope at the heart of all our songs —
That the banded stars are in league with lovers,
And fight against their wrongs.

The Shoes of Happiness, and Other Poems (1913)

Slave of the wheel of labor, what to him
Are Plato and the swing of Pleiades?

The Man With the Hoe (1898)

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Edwin Markham (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.