General William Booth Enters into Heaven and Other Poems [17]
When will they make a path of beauty clear
Between our riches and our liberty?
We must have many Lincoln-hearted men.
A city is not builded in a day.
And they must do their work, and come and go
While countless generations pass away.
[End of original text.]
Nicholas Vachel Lindsay (1879-1931):
(Vachel is pronounced Vay-chul, that is, it rhymes with `Rachel').
Vachel Lindsay, of Springfield, Illinois, is best known for his efforts
to restore the vocal tradition to poetry. He made a journey on foot
as far as New Mexico, taking along copies of a pamphlet,
"Rhymes to be Traded for Bread", for the purpose the title suggests.
He wrote of this journey in "Adventures while Preaching the Gospel of Beauty".
"The Eagle that is Forgotten" and "The Congo" are his best-known poems,
and appear in his first two volumes of verse, "General William Booth
Enters into Heaven" (1913) and "The Congo" (1914).
As a sidenote, he became close friends with the poet Sara Teasdale
(well worth reading in her own right -- perhaps the better poet),
and his third volume of verse, "The Chinese Nightingale" (1917),
is dedicated to her. In turn, she wrote a memorial verse for him
after he committed suicide in 1931.
End