Edwin DuBose Heyward (August 31, 1885 – June 16, 1940) was an American author best known for his 1925 novel Porgy. This novel was adapted and produced in 1927 as a play by the same name (which he co-authored with his wife Dorothy) and, in turn, the opera Porgy and Bess (1935) with music by George Gershwin. It was also adapted as a film by the opera's name, released in 1959. Heyward also wrote poetry and other novels and plays, as well as the children's book The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes (1939).
Once in the starlight
When the tides were low,
And the surf fell sobbing
...
They fight your battles for you every day,
The zealous ones, who sorrow in your life.
Undaunted by a century of strife,
...
They tell me she is beautiful, my City,
That she is colorful and quaint, alone
Among the cities. But I, I who have known
Her tenderness, her courage, and her pity,
...
I
Spring found us early that eventful year,
Seeming to know in her clairvoyant way
The bitterness of hunger and despair
...