The Project Gutenberg EBook of General William Booth enters into Heaven and other Poems, by Vachel Lindsay

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Title: General William Booth enters into Heaven and other Poems

Author: Vachel Lindsay

Posting Date: July 20, 2008 [EBook #424] Release Date: February, 1995

Language: English

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH ***

Produced by A. Light and L. Bowser.

[Note on text: Italicized stanzas will be indented 5 spaces.
Italicized AND indented stanzas will be indented 10 spaces.
Italicized words or phrases will be capitalised.
Some obvious errors may have been corrected.]

+————————————————————————-+ | By Vachel Lindsay | | | | The Congo and Other Poems | | General William Booth Enters into Heaven | | The Art of the Moving Picture | | Adventures While Preaching the Gospel of Beauty | +————————————————————————-+

General William Booth Enters into Heaven and Other Poems

by

Vachel Lindsay

[Nicholas Vachel Lindsay, Illinois Poet—1879-1931]

[This etext has been transcribed from a 1916 reprint (New York) of the original 1913 edition.]

This book is dedicated to

Dr. Arthur Paul Wakefield

and

Olive Lindsay Wakefield

Missionaries in China

Contents

  General William Booth Enters into Heaven
  The Drunkards in the Street
  The City That Will Not Repent
  The Trap
  Where is David, the Next King of Israel?
  On Reading Omar Khayyam
  The Beggar's Valentine
  Honor Among Scamps
  The Gamblers
  On the Road to Nowhere
  Upon Returning to the Country Road
  The Angel and the Clown
  Springfield Magical
  Incense
  The Wedding of the Rose and the Lotos
  King Arthur's Men Have Come Again
  Foreign Missions in Battle Array
  Star of My Heart
  Look You, I'll Go Pray
  At Mass
  Heart of God
  The Empty Boats
  With a Bouquet of Twelve Roses
  St. Francis of Assisi
  Buddha
  A Prayer to All the Dead Among Mine Own People
  To Reformers in Despair
  Why I Voted the Socialist Ticket
  To the United States Senate
  The Knight in Disguise
  The Wizard in the Street
  The Eagle that is Forgotten
  Shakespeare
  Michelangelo
  Titian
  Lincoln
  The Cornfields
  Sweet Briars of the Stairways
  Fantasies and Whims:—
     The Fairy Bridal Hymn
     The Potato's Dance
     How a Little Girl Sang
     Ghosts in Love
     The Queen of Bubbles
     The Tree of Laughing Bells, or The Wings of the Morning
     Sweethearts of the Year
     The Sorceress!
     Caught in a Net
     Eden in Winter
     Genesis
     Queen Mab in the Village
     The Dandelion
     The Light o' the Moon
     A Net to Snare the Moonlight
     Beyond the Moon
     The Song of the Garden-Toad
  A Gospel of Beauty:—
     The Proud Farmer
     The Illinois Village
     On the Building of Springfield

General William Booth Enters into Heaven

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

I

   [Bass drum beaten loudly.]
  Booth led boldly with his big bass drum—
  (Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?)
  The Saints smiled gravely and they said: "He's come."
  (Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?)
  Walking lepers followed, rank on rank,
  Lurching bravoes from the ditches dank,
  Drabs from the alleyways and drug fiends pale—
  Minds still passion-ridden, soul-powers frail:—
  Vermin-eaten saints with mouldy breath,
  Unwashed legions with the ways of Death—
  (Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?)

   [Banjos.]
  Every slum had sent its half-a-score
  The round world over. (Booth had groaned for more.)
  Every banner that the wide world flies
  Bloomed with glory and transcendent dyes.
  Big-voiced lasses made their banjos bang,
  Tranced, fanatical they shrieked and sang:—
  "Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?"
  Hallelujah! It was queer to see
  Bull-necked convicts with that land make free.
  Loons with trumpets blowed a blare, blare, blare
  On, on upward thro' the golden air!
  (Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?)

II

   [Bass drum slower and softer.]
  Booth died blind and still by Faith he trod,
  Eyes still dazzled by the ways of God.
  Booth led boldly, and he looked the chief
  Eagle countenance in sharp relief,
  Beard a-flying, air of high command
  Unabated in that holy land.

   [Sweet flute music.]
  Jesus came from out the court-house door,
  Stretched his hands above the passing poor.
  Booth saw not, but led his queer ones there
  Round and round the mighty court-house square.
  Yet in an instant all that blear review
  Marched on spotless, clad in raiment new.
  The lame were straightened, withered limbs uncurled
  And blind eyes opened on a new, sweet world.

   [Bass drum louder.]
  Drabs and vixens in a flash made whole!
  Gone was the weasel-head, the snout, the jowl!
  Sages and sibyls now, and athletes clean,
  Rulers of empires, and of forests green!

   [Grand chorus of all instruments. Tambourines to the foreground.]
  The hosts were sandalled, and their wings were fire!
  (Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?)
  But their noise played havoc with the angel-choir.
  (Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?)
  O, shout Salvation! It was good to see
  Kings and Princes by the Lamb set free.
  The banjos rattled and the tambourines
  Jing-jing-jingled in the hands of Queens.

   [Reverently sung, no instruments.]
  And when Booth halted by the curb for prayer
  He saw his Master thro' the flag-filled air.
  Christ came gently with a robe and crown
  For Booth the soldier, while the throng knelt down.
  He saw King Jesus. They were face to face,
  And he knelt a-weeping in that holy