| Higginson and Bigelow, comps. American Sonnets. 1891. | | | | The Cricket | | By David Skaats Foster (1852–1920) |
| | | OH! little cricket that the evening long | |
| 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 | 5 |
| 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 | 10 |
| 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! | | | | |
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