Poems by Vachel Lindsay

A curse upon each king who leads his state,

To be intoned, all but the two italicized lines, which are to be spoken in a snappy, matter-of-fact way.

[What the Man of Faith said]

Are these your presences, my clan from Heaven?

I look on the specious electrical light

St. Francis, Buddha, Tolstoi, and St. John -

(In Springfield, Illinois)

"Bring me soft song," said Aladdin.

I know a seraph who has golden eyes,

Sometimes I dip my pen and find the bottle full of fire,

I. The Voice of the Man Impatient with Visions and Utopias

The Grasshopper, the grasshopper,

(In the Beginning)

No doubt to-morrow I will hide

[Written to the Most Beautiful Woman in the World]

(After seeing the reel called "Oil and Water".)

Would that by Hindu magic we became

Sometimes we remember kisses,

Upon her breast her hands and hair

I. God Send the Regicide

The foolish queen of fairyland

Too soon you wearied of our tears.

(Moon Poems for the Children/Fairy-tales for the Children)

[Supposed to be chanted to some rude instrument at a modern fireplace]

Though I have found you like a snow-drop pale,

I. Edwin Booth

(Moon Poems for the Children/Fairy-tales for the Children)

Factory windows are always broken.

An endless line of splendor,

A Poem Dedicated to All Crusaders against the International and Interstate Traffic in Young Girls

[To be sung to the tune of 'The Blood of the Lamb' with indicated instrument]

I was but a half-grown boy,

"Tell me, where do ghosts in love

On -

How the red bells rang

O great heart of God,

(Written with the hope that the socialists might yet dethrone Kaiser and Czar.)

We are the smirched. Queen Honor is the spotless.

Dedicated to Lucy Bates

Ah, she was music in herself,

Oh, once I walked in Heaven, all alone

(A Negro Sermon.)

(The poem shows the Master, with his work done, singing to free his heart in Heaven.)

I went down into the desert

The angels guide him now,

After having read a Great Deal of Good Current Poetry in the Magazines and Newspapers

Think not that incense-smoke has had its day.

[Written while a field-worker in the Anti-Saloon League of Illinois.]

Would I might rouse the Lincoln in you all,

Look you, I'll go pray,

True Love is founded in rocks of Remembrance

In "Man's Genesis", "The Wild Girl of the Sierras", "The Wharf Rat", "A Girl of the Paris Streets", etc.

When Yankee soldiers reach the barricade

Would I might wake in you the whirl-wind soul

My lady in her white silk shawl

I

[During an anti-saloon campaign, in central Illinois.]

Let not our town be large, remembering

(Moon Poems for the Children/Fairy-tales for the Children)

On the road to nowhere

Girl with the burning golden eyes,

Where a river roars in rapids

(Note: - Pocahontas is buried at Gravesend, England.)

Where does Cinderella sleep?

I. The Lion

(Moon Poems for the Children/Fairy-tales for the Children)

Once I loved a fairy,

This doll upon the topmost bough,

Oh, saucy gold circle of fairyland silk -

Your pen needs but a ruffle

The gleaming head of one fine friend

Would that in body and spirit Shakespeare came

In this, the City of my Discontent,

Would I might wake St. Francis in you all,

Star of my heart, I follow from afar.

For a Very Little Girl, Not a Year Old. Catharine Frazee Wakefield.

We are happy all the time

Sweetheart Spring

Thou wilt not sentence to eternal life

Ah, in the night, all music haunts me here....

I saw wild domes and bowers

I opened the ink-well and smoke filled the room.

"What Mister Moon Said to Me."

Kiss me and comfort my heart

Written for Lorado Taft's Statue of Black Hawk at Oregon, Illinois

A Memorial to Booker T. Washington

A little colt - broncho, loaned to the farm

"How, how," he said. "Friend Chang," I said,

Climbing the heights of Berkeley

A Study of the Negro Race

The cornfields rise above mankind,

O dandelion, rich and haughty,

In fairyland the little boys

"Yes," said the sister with the little pinched face,

[John P. Altgeld. Born Dec. 30, 1847; died March 12, 1902]

Why do I see these empty boats, sailing on airy seas?

(Moon Poems for the Children/Fairy-tales for the Children)

[This is the hymn to Eleanor, daughter of Mab and a golden drone, sung by the Locust choir when the fairy child marries her God, the yellow rose]

Section One

(To Eudora, after I had had certain dire adventures.)

Life's a jail where men have common lot.

Last night at black midnight I woke with a cry,

(Moon Poems for the Children/Fairy-tales for the Children)

There dwelt a widow learned and devout,

Though I have watched so many mourners weep

O you who lose the art of hope,

"To the farthest star of all,

These, the Wings of the Morning,

An Argument for the Maintenance of Peace and Goodwill with the Japanese People

A thousand times ten thousand times

The King of Yellow Butterflies,

[Concerning O. Henry (Sidney Porter)]

Let not young souls be smothered out before

The Lion is a kingly beast.

A chant to which it is intended a group of children shall dance and improvise pantomime led by their dancing-teacher.

Written to Miss Alice L. F. Fitzgerald, Edith Cavell memorial nurse, going to the front.

(Moon Poems for the Children/Fairy-tales for the Children)

(Moon Poems for the Children/Fairy-tales for the Children)

The mouse that gnawed the oak-tree down

A chant for a children's pantomime dance, suggested by a picture painted by George Mather Richards.

The North Star whispers: "You are one

The moon's a peck of corn. It lies

I

"Down cellar," said the cricket,

I

(To Edgar Lee Masters, with great respect.)

[In memory of E. S. Frazee, Rush County, Indiana]

[Written for a picture]

The whole world on a raft! A King is here,

I asked the old Negro, "What is that bird that sings so well?" He answered: "That is the Rachel-Jane." "Hasn't it another name, lark, or thrush, or the like?" "No. Jus' Rachel-Jane."

The old man had his box and wheel

Down, down beneath the daisy beds,

I asked her, "Is Aladdin's lamp

A Broadside distributed in Springfield, Illinois

This is the song

Once I loved a spider

(What the Mendicant Said)

"The sun says his prayers," said the fairy,

A Fantasy, dedicated to the little poet Alice Oliver Henderson, ten years old.

She was taught desire in the street,

(To a Man who maintained that the Mausoleum is the Stateliest Possible Manner of Interment)

[A Poem for Aviators]

This is the sin against the Holy Ghost: -

The wide Pacific waters

[Concerning Edgar Allan Poe]

This section is a Christmas tree:

(Being a Chant of the American Soap-Box and the Russian Revolution.)

Would that such hills and cities round us sang,

Awake again in Asia, Lord of Peace,

Two Poems, written on the Sinking of the Lusitania.

Romance was always young.

(On hearing she was leaving the moving-pictures for the stage.)

'Tis not too late to build our young land right,

[Revelation 16: Verses 16-19]

Two old crows sat on a fence rail,

Even the shrewd and bitter,

Though better men may fear that trumpet's warning,

The moon's a holy owl-queen.

(Moon Poems for the Children/Fairy-tales for the Children)

(Moon Poems for the Children/Fairy-tales for the Children)

The moon is but a candle-glow

Where now the huts are empty,

(Moon Poems for the Children/Fairy-tales for the Children)

The moon is but a golden skull,

(Moon Poems for the Children/Fairy-tales for the Children)

(Moon Poems for the Children/Fairy-tales for the Children)

(Moon Poems for the Children/Fairy-tales for the Children)

The dim-winged spirits of the night

The Moon's a snowball. See the drifts

When Bryan speaks, the town's a hive.

He paid a Swede twelve bits an hour

Where is David? . . . O God's people,

(Matthew 5:38-48)

They say one king is mad. Perhaps. Who knows?

I am unjust, but I can strive for justice.

I saw Lord Buddha towering by my gate

(Moon Poems for the Children/Fairy-tales for the Children)

This poem is intended as a description of a sort of Blashfield mural painting on the sky. To be sung to the tune of Yankee Doodle, yet in a slower, more orotund fashion. It is presumably an exercise for an entertainment on the evening of Washin

(Moon Poems for the Children/Fairy-tales for the Children)