July 16, 2022

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The Locust

Leonora Speyer

Its hot voice sizzles from some cool tree
Near-by:
It seems to burn its way through the air
Like a small, pointed flame of sound
Sharpened on the ecstatic edge of sunbeams.

This poem is in the public domain. Published in Poem-a-Day on July 16, 2022, by the Academy of American Poets.

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“The Locust” first appeared in Poetry XVI, no. IV (July 1920), and later in Speyer’s first collection of poems, A Canopic Jar (E. P. Dutton & Company, 1921). Through synesthesia, Speyer’s speaker links the distinctive sound of the locusts to the feeling of summer heat.

Leonora Speyer, born on November 7, 1872 in Washington, D.C., was a poet and concert violinist. She was the author of multiple collections, including Fiddler’s Farewell (Alfred A. Knopf, 1926), which won the 1927 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry. She died on February 10, 1956.

A Canopic Jar
(E. P. Dutton & Company, 1921)

“Fides, Spes” by Willa Cather
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“[The cry of the cicada]” by Matsuo Basho
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Thanks to E rica Hunt, author of Jump the Clock (Nightboat Books, 2020), who curated Poem-a-Day for this month’s weekdays. Read or listen to a Q&A about Hunt’s curatorial approach and find out more about our guest editors for the year.

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Poem-a-Day - "The Locust" by Leonora Speyer

The Locust

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