The Chinese Nightingale and Other Poems

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Both Leaders: King Solomon he had four hundred sons.

Congregation: We were the sons.

Both Leaders: Crowned by the throngs again,

You shall make songs again,
Singing along
For ten thousand years.

Both Leaders: He gave each son four hundred prancing ponies.

Congregation: We were the ponies.

Both Leaders: You shall eat hay again,

In forests play again,
Rampage and neigh
For ten thousand years.

Men's Leader: King Solomon he asked the Queen of Sheba,
each one commands half of the stage.>
Bowing most politely:
"What makes the oak-tree grow
Hardy in sun and snow,
Never by wind brought low
Ten thousand years?"

Women's Leader: The Queen of Sheba answered like a lady,

Bowing most politely:
"It blooms forever thinking of your wisdom,
Your brave heart and the way you rule your kingdom.
These keep the oak secure,
Weaving its leafy lure,
Dreaming by fountains pure
Ten thousand years."

Both Leaders: The Queen of Sheba had four hundred sailors.

Congregation: We were the sailors.

Both Leaders: You shall bring spice and ore
indicating the entire horizon line.>
Over the ocean's floor,
Shipmates once more,
For ten thousand years.

Women's Leader: The Queen of Sheba asked him like a lady,

Bowing most politely:
"Why is the sea so deep,
What secret does it keep
While tides a-roaring leap
Ten thousand years?"

Men's Leader: King Solomon made answer to the lady,
but taking cognizance, the King wooing with ornate gestures
of respect and courtly admiration.>
Bowing most politely:
"My love for you is like the stormy ocean --
Too deep to understand,
Bending to your command,
Bringing your ships to land
Ten thousand years."
King Solomon,
King Solomon.

Both Leaders: King Solomon he had four hundred chieftains.

Congregation: We were the chieftains.

Both Leaders: You shall be proud again,

Dazzle the crowd again,
Laughing aloud
For ten thousand years.

much more solemn, elevated, religious.>

Both Leaders: King Solomon he had four hundred shepherds.

Congregation: We were the shepherds.

with torches held high.>
Both Leaders: You shall have torches bright,
Watching the folds by night,
Guarding the lambs aright,
Ten thousand years.

Men's Leader: King Solomon he asked the Queen of Sheba,

Bowing most politely:
"Why are the stars so high,
There in the velvet sky,
Rolling in rivers by,
Ten thousand years?"

Women's Leader: The Queen of Sheba answered like a lady,
and gives the same gesture as she answers.>
Bowing most politely:
"They're singing of your kingdom to the angels,
They guide your chariot with their lamps and candles,
Therefore they burn so far --
So you can drive your car
Up where the prophets are,
Ten thousand years."

Men's Leader: King Solomon,
King Solomon.

Both Leaders: King Solomon he kept the Sabbath holy.

And spoke with tongues in prophet words so mighty

We stamped and whirled and wept and shouted: --

Congregation Rises and Joins the Song:
. . . . "Glory."
We were his people.

gravely, magnificently.>
Both Leaders: You shall be wild and gay,
Green trees shall deck your way,

Sunday be every day,
Ten thousand years.

maintaining a certain intention of benediction.>
King Solomon,
King Solomon.

How Samson Bore Away the Gates of Gaza

(A Negro Sermon.)

Once, in a night as black as ink,
She drove him out when he would not drink.
Round the house there were men in wait
Asleep in rows by the Gaza gate.
But the Holy Spirit was in this man.
Like a gentle wind he crept and ran.
("It is midnight," said the big town clock.)

He lifted the gates up, post and lock.
The hole in the wall was high and wide
When he bore away old Gaza's pride
Into the deep of the night: --
The bold Jack Johnson Israelite, --
Samson --
The Judge,
The Nazarite.

The air was black, like the smoke of a dragon.
Samson's heart was as big as a wagon.
He sang like a shining golden fountain.
He sweated up to the top of the mountain.
He threw down the gates with a noise like judgment.
And the quails all ran with the big arousement.

But he wept -- "I must not love tough queens,
And spend on them my hard earned means.
I told that girl I would drink no more.
Therefore she drove me from her door.
Oh sorrow!
Sorrow!
I cannot hide.
Oh Lord look down from your chariot side.
You made me Judge, and I am not wise.
I am weak as a sheep for all my size."

Let Samson
Be coming
Into your mind.

The moon shone out, the stars were gay.
He saw the foxes run and play.
He rent his garments, he rolled around
In deep repentance on the ground.

Then he felt a honey in his soul.
Grace abounding made him whole.
Then he saw the Lord in a chariot blue.
The gorgeous stallions whinnied and flew.
The iron wheels hummed an old hymn-tune
And crunched in thunder over the moon.
And Samson shouted to the sky:
"My Lord, my Lord is riding high."

Like a steed, he pawed the gates with his hoof.
He rattled the gates like rocks on the roof,
And danced in the night
On the mountain-top,
Danced in the deep of the night:
The Judge, the holy Nazarite,
Whom ropes and chains could never bind.

Let Samson
Be coming
Into your mind.

Whirling his arms, like a top he sped.
His long black hair flew round his head
Like an outstretched net of silky cord,
Like a wheel of the chariot of the Lord.

Let Samson
Be coming
Into your mind.

Samson saw the sun anew.
He left the gates in the grass and dew.
He went to a county-seat a-nigh.
Found a harlot proud and high:
Philistine that no man could tame --
Delilah was her lady-name.
Oh sorrow,
Sorrow,
She was too wise.
She cut off his hair,
She put out his eyes.

Let Samson
Be coming
Into your mind.

----------------------------------------------
| The following pages contain advertisements |
| of other books by the same author |
| which appeared in the 1918 copy. |
----------------------------------------------

By the Same Author

A Handy Guide for Beggars
New Edition. Cloth, 12mo, $1.25

"The Handy Guide for Beggars" is an introduction to all Vachel Lindsay's work.
It gives his first adventures afoot. He walked through Florida, Georgia,
North Carolina, Tennessee, and Kentucky, in the spring of 1906.
He walked through New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and on to Hiram, Ohio,
in the spring of 1908. He carried on these trips his poems:
"The Tree of Laughing Bells", "The Heroes of Time", etc.
He recited them in exchange for food and lodging. He left copies
for those who appeared interested. The book is a record of these journeys,
and of many pleasing discoveries about American Democracy.

This book serves to introduce the next, "Adventures While Preaching
the Gospel of Beauty". In the spring and summer of 1912,
Mr. Lindsay walked from Springfield, Illinois, west to Colorado,
and into New Mexico. He was much more experienced in the road.
He carried "Rhymes to Be Traded for Bread", "The Village Improvement Parade",
etc. As is indicated in the title, he wrestled with a theory
of American aesthetics. "Christmas, 1915", the third book in the series,
appeared, applying the "Gospel of Beauty to the Photoplay".
The ideas of Art and Democracy that develop in the first two books
are used as the basic principles in "The Art of the Moving Picture".
Those who desire a close view of the Lindsay idea will do well
to read the three works in the order named. Further particulars
in the pages following.

The Congo and Other Poems
With a preface by Harriet Monroe, Editor of the `Poetry Magazine'.
Cloth, 12mo, $1.25; leather, $1.60

In the readings which Vachel Lindsay has given for colleges, universities,
etc., throughout the country, he has won the approbation of the critics
and of his audiences in general for the new verse-form which he is employing,
as well as the manner of his chanting and singing,
which is peculiarly his own. He carries in memory all the poems in his books,
and recites the program made out for him; the wonderful effect of sound
produced by his lines, their relation to the idea which the author seeks
to convey, and their marvelous lyrical quality are quite beyond the ordinary,
and suggest new possibilities and new meanings in poetry.
It is his main object to give his already established friends
a deeper sense of the musical intention of his pieces.

The book contains the much discussed "War Poem", "Abraham Lincoln Walks
at Midnight"; it contains among its familiar pieces: "The Santa Fe Trail",
"The Firemen's Ball", "The Dirge for a Righteous Kitten",
"The Griffin's Egg", "The Spice Tree", "Blanche Sweet", "Mary Pickford",
"The Soul of the City", etc.

Mr. Lindsay received the Levinson Prize for the best poem contributed
to `Poetry', a magazine of verse, (Chicago) for 1915.

"We do not know a young man of any more promise than Mr. Vachel Lindsay
for the task which he seems to have set himself." -- `The Dial'.

General William Booth Enters Into Heaven and Other Poems
Price, $1.25; leather, $1.60

This book contains among other verses: "On Reading Omar Khayyam
during an Anti-Saloon Campaign in Illinois"; "The Wizard Wind";
"The Eagle Forgotten", a Memorial to John P. Altgeld;
"The Knight in Disguise", a Memorial to O. Henry; "The Rose and the Lotus";
"Michaelangelo"; "Titian"; "What the Hyena Said"; "What Grandpa Mouse Said";
"A Net to Snare the Moonlight"; "Springfield Magical"; "The Proud Farmer";
"The Illinois Village"; "The Building of Springfield".

--------

Comments on the Title Poem:

"This poem, at once so glorious, so touching and poignant
in its conception and expression . . . is perhaps the most remarkable poem
of a decade -- one that defies imitation." -- `Review of Reviews'.

"A sweeping and penetrating vision that works with a naive charm. . . .
No American poet of to-day is more a people's poet." -- `Boston Transcript'.

"One could hardly overpraise `General Booth'." -- `New York Times'.

"Something new in verse, spontaneous, passionate, unmindful of conventions
in form and theme." -- `The Living Age'.

Adventures While Preaching the Gospel of Beauty
Price, $1.00

This is a series of happening afoot while reciting at back-doors in the west,
and includes some experiences while harvesting in Kansas.
It includes several proclamations which apply the Gospel of Beauty
to agricultural conditions. There are, among other rhymed interludes:
"The Shield of Faith", "The Flute of the Lonely", "The Rose of Midnight",
"Kansas", "The Kallyope Yell".

Something to Read

Vachel Lindsay took a walk from his home in Springfield, Ill.,
over the prairies to New Mexico. He was in Kansas in wheat-harvest time
and he worked as a farmhand, and he tells all about that.
He tells about his walks and the people he met in a little book,
"Adventures While Preaching the Gospel of Beauty".
For the conditions of his tramps were that he should keep away
from cities, money, baggage, and pay his way by reciting his own poems.
And he did it. People liked his pieces, and tramp farmhands
with rough necks and rougher hands left off singing smutty limericks
and took to "Atalanta in Calydon" apparently because they preferred it.
Of motor cars, which gave him a lift, he says: "I still maintain
that the auto is a carnal institution, to be shunned by the truly spiritual,
but there are times when I, for one, get tired of being spiritual."
His story of the "Five Little Children Eating Mush" (that was one night
in Colorado, and he recited to them while they ate supper) has more beauty
and tenderness and jolly tears than all the expensive sob stuff
theatrical managers ever dreamed of. Mr. Lindsay doesn't need to write verse
to be a poet. His prose is poetry -- poetry straight from the soil,
of America that is, and of a nobler America that is to be.
You cannot afford -- both for your entertainment and for the REAL IDEA
that this young man has (of which we have said nothing) -- to miss this book.
-- Editorial from `Collier's Weekly'.

The Art of the Moving Picture
Price, $1.25

An effort to apply the Gospel of Beauty to a new art.
The first section has an outline which is proposed as a basis
for photoplay criticism in America; chapters on: "The Photoplay of Action",
"The Intimate Photoplay", "The Picture of Fairy Splendor",
"The Picture of Crowd Splendor", "The Picture of Patriotic Splendor",
"The Picture of Religious Splendor", "Sculpture in Motion",
"Painting in Motion", "Furniture", "Trappings and Inventions in Motion",
"Architecture in Motion", "Thirty Differences between the Photoplays
and the Stage", "Hieroglyphics". The second section is avowedly
more discursive, being more personal speculations and afterthoughts,
not brought forward so dogmatically; chapters on: "The Orchestra Conversation
and the Censorship", "The Substitute for the Saloon",
"California and America", "Progress and Endowment",
"Architects as Crusaders", "On Coming Forth by Day",
"The Prophet Wizard", "The Acceptable Year of the Lord".

For Late Reviews of Mr. Lindsay and his contemporaries read:

`The New Republic': Articles by Randolph S. Bourne, December 5, 1914,
on the "Adventures While Preaching"; and Francis Hackett, December 25, 1915,
on "The Art of the Moving Picture".

`The Dial': Unsigned article by Lucien Carey, October 16, 1914,
on "The Congo", etc.

`The Yale Review': Article by H. M. Luquiens, July, 1916,
on "The Art of the Moving Picture".

General Articles on the Poetry Situation

`The Century Magazine': "America's Golden Age in Poetry", March, 1916.

`Harper's Monthly Magazine': "The Easy Chair", William Dean Howells,
September, 1915.

`The Craftsman': "Has America a National Poetry?" Amy Lowell, July, 1916.

[End of original text.]

Biographical Note:

Nicholas Vachel Lindsay (1879-1931):
(Vachel is pronounced Vay-chul, that is, it rhymes with `Rachel').

"The Eagle that is Forgotten" and "The Congo" are two of 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
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.

----

From an anthology of verse by Jessie B. Rittenhouse (1913, 1917):

"Lindsay, Vachel. Born November 10, 1879. Educated at Hiram College, Ohio.
He took up the study of art and studied at the Art Institute, Chicago,
1900-03 and at the New York School of Art, 1904-05. For a time
after his technical study, he lectured upon art in its practical relation
to the community, and returning to his home in Springfield, Illinois,
issued what one might term his manifesto in the shape of
"The Village Magazine", divided about equally between prose articles,
pertaining to beautifying his native city, and poems,
illustrated by his own drawings. Soon after this, Mr. Lindsay,
taking as scrip for the journey, "Rhymes to be Traded for Bread",
made a pilgrimage on foot through several Western States
going as far afield as New Mexico. The story of this journey is given
in his volume, "Adventures while Preaching the Gospel of Beauty".
Mr. Lindsay first attracted attention in poetry by "General William Booth
Enters into Heaven", a poem which became the title of his first volume,
in 1913. His second volume was "The Congo", published in 1914.
He is attempting to restore to poetry its early appeal as a spoken art,
and his later work differs greatly from the selections contained
in this anthology."

In four instances, the original copy used accented spellings of words
which are now common in English without those accents. They are:

~
canons ==> canyons

"
cooperation ==> cooperation

^
fete ==> fete

"
reechoed ==> reechoed

End of this etext of The Chinese Nightingale and Other Poems

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