A CREED (A Poem by Edwin Markham)

 

A   CREED

(A Poem by  Edwin Markham)

                        THERE is a destiny that makes us brothers

                                None goes his way  along:

                         All   that  we  send into the lives of others

                                 Comes back into  our  own.            

 

                          I care not what his  temples or his creeds,

                                    One  thing holds firm and fast ---

                           That in to his fateful heap of days and deeds

                                    The soul of man is cast.

Edwin Markham was born on 23 April  1852  at  Oregon City, United States. He passed away on 7 March at Staten Island, New York, United States. His original name was Charles Edward Anson Markham. He was about 43, when he dropped Charles and adopted  Edwin.

 

Edwin as not just a  poet among poets. .  He was different because of his exclusive  interest in the unhappy life of labourers exploited by the capitalistic class. His popularity shot up the day his poem “The Man with the Hoe”, which begins with the following lines, was published. :

 

                                    Bowed by the weight of centuries he leans

                                    Upon his hoe and gazes on the ground,

                                    The emptiness of the ages in his face,

And on his back the burden of the world.

 

Edwin appeared  as the voice of the workers, when  there were  no supporters of  their rights and principles of social justice in the United States.

 

                                    “A Creed” is a great poem on universal brotherhood, in the     face of different creeds and individual houses of worship. Its message  is the unity of mankind ordained by an invisible  destiny :  

                                   

“There is a destiny that makes us brothers;

                                    None goes his way alone.

                                    All that  we send into the lives of others

                                    Comes back into our own. “

Edwin believes that “none goes his way alone” because he is surrounded by a caravan of countless co-travellers , walking with him in spiritual relationship.   There exists a spiritual bond among all human beings. It mutually affects their lives.  What we send into  the lives of others comes back into our own  because into the ‘fateful heap of days and deeds/The soul of man is cast.’ People are physically aloof but spiritually together.         

           

To put it briefly, ‘A Creed’ is a poem about  much-need religious harmony and inter-faith unity.    

 

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29^th August 2021                                                G.R.Kanwal