July 16, 2022

Made possible thanks to readers like you.

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.

Subscribe to the Poem-a-Day Podcast

“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
read more

“[The cry of the cicada]” by Matsuo Basho
read more

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.

Love Poem-a-Day?

Help the Academy of American Poets share daily poems by joining our monthly sustainers program or by making a one-time gift.

Become a monthly sustainer.

Make a gift.

The Academy of American Poets

75 Maiden Lane

St #901

New York, NY 10038

Add us to your address book

View this email in your browser

Want to change how you receive these emails?
You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.

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

The Locust

Subscribe to the Poem-a-Day Podcast

Become a monthly sustainer.

Make a gift.

Older messages

"Leaves of Today" by Kit Robinson

"Lineage Anagrams II" by Lillian-Yvonne Bertram

Summer Camp: Surrealism

"I Never Felt Comfortable in My Own Skin So I Made a New One" by Xan Phillips

Ada Limón Appointed United States Poet Laureate

You Might Also Like

In Other Contexts, It's Called "Consumer Advocacy"

Family, Mid-November

Why does it feel like there’s listeria in everything?

10 Years Ago, Gigi Hadid Wore Blair Waldorf's Fave Accessory At NYFW

I Got Facial Feminization Surgery — But Kept My Big Nose

Here's Why Eggs Are so Expensive Right Now 🥚

5 Walking Workouts You Need to Try

The Gorgeous Coat Trend Taking Over NYC Right Now

“Ways to Measure Trees” by MaKshya Tolbert

Bottom Floor