Congo and other poems / by Vachel Lindsay [electronic text]

THIRD SECTION
A MISCELLANY CALLED "THE CHRISTMAS TREE"

THIS SECTION IS A CHRISTMAS TREE

This section is a Christmas tree Loaded with pretty toys for you. Behold the blocks, the Noah's arks, The popguns painted red and blue. No solemn pine-cone forest-fruit, But silver horns and candy sacks And many little tinsel hearts And cherubs pink, and jumping-jacks. For every child a gift, I hope. The doll upon the topmost bough Is mine. But all the rest are yours.And I will light the candles now.

THE SUN SAYS HIS PRAYERS

"The sun says his prayers," said the fairy, Or else he would wither and die. "The sun says his prayers," said the fairy, "For strength to climb up through the sky. He leans on invisible angels, And Faith is his prop and his rod. The sky is his crystal cathedral. And dawn is his altar to God."

POPCORN, GLASS BALLS, AND CRANBERRIES (AS IT WERE)

I. THE LION

The Lion is a kingly beast. He likes a Hindu for a feast. And if no Hindu he can get, The lion-family is upset.

He cuffs his wife and bites her ears Till she is nearly moved to tears. Then some explorer finds the den And all is family peace again.

II. AN EXPLANATION OF THE GRASSHOPPER

The Grasshopper, the grasshopper, I will explain to you:— He is the Brownies' racehorse, The fairies' Kangaroo.

III. THE DANGEROUS LITTLE BOY FAIRIES

In fairyland the little boys Would rather fight than eat their meals.

They like to chase a gauze-winged fly And catch and beat him till he squeals. Sometimes they come to sleeping men Armed with the deadly red-rose thorn, And those that feel its fearful wound Repent the day that they were born.

IV. THE MOUSE THAT GNAWED THE OAK-TREE DOWN

The mouse that gnawed the oak-tree down Began his task in early life. He kept so busy with his teeth He had no time to take a wife.

He gnawed and gnawed through sun and rain When the ambitious fit was on, Then rested in the sawdust till A month of idleness had gone.

He did not move about to hunt The coteries of mousie-men. He was a snail-paced, stupid thing Until he cared to gnaw again.

The mouse that gnawed the oak-tree down, When that tough foe was at his feet —

Found in the stump no angel-cake Nor buttered bread, nor cheese, nor meat — The forest-roof let in the sky. "This light is worth the work," said he. "I'll make this ancient swamp more light," And started on another tree.

V. PARVENU

Where does Cinderella sleep? By far-off day-dream river. A secret place her burning Prince Decks, while his heart-strings quiver.

Homesick for our cinder world, Her low-born shoulders shiver; She longs for sleep in cinders curled — We, for the day-dream river.

VI. THE SPIDER AND THE GHOST OF THE FLY

Once I loved a spider When I was born a fly, A velvet-footed spider With a gown of rainbow-dye. She ate my wings and gloated. She bound me with a hair.

She drove me to her parlor Above her winding stair. To educate young spiders She took me all apart. My ghost came back to haunt her. I saw her eat my heart.

VII. CRICKETS ON A STRIKE

The foolish queen of fairyland From her milk-white throne in a lily-bell, Gave command to her cricket-band To play for her when the dew-drops fell.

But the cold dew spoiled their instruments And they play for the foolish queen no more. Instead those sturdy malcontents Play sharps and flats in my kitchen floor.

HOW A LITTLE GIRL DANCED

DEDICATED TO LUCY BATES

(Being a reminiscence of certain private theatricals.)

Oh, cabaret dancer, I know a dancer, Whose eyes have not looked on the feasts that are vain. I know a dancer, I know a dancer, Whose soul has no bond with the beasts of the plain: Judith the dancer, Judith the dancer, With foot like the snow, and with step like the rain.

Oh, thrice-painted dancer, vaudeville dancer, Sad in your spangles, with soul all astrain, I know a dancer,Iknow a dancer, Whose laughter and weeping are spiritual gain, A pure-hearted, high-hearted maiden evangel,

With strength the dark cynical earth to disdain.

Flowers of bright Broadway, you of the chorus, Who sing in the hope of forgetting your pain: I turn to a sister of Sainted Cecilia, A white bird escaping the earth's tangled skein:— The music of God is her innermost brooding, The whispering angels her footsteps sustain.

Oh, proud Russian dancer: praise for your dancing. No clean human passion my rhyme would arraign. You dance for Apollo with noble devotion, A high cleansing revel to make the heart sane. But Judith the dancer prays to a spirit More white than Apollo and all of his train.

I know a dancer who finds the true Godhead, Who bends o'er a brazier in Heaven's clear plain. I know a dancer, I know a dancer,

Who lifts us toward peace, from this earth that is vain:Judith the dancer, Judith the dancer, With foot like the snow, and with step like the rain.

IN PRAISE OF SONGS THAT DIE

AFTER HAVING READ A GREAT DEAL OF GOOD CURRENT POETRY IN THE MAGAZINES AND NEWSPAPERS

Ah, they are passing, passing by, Wonderful songs, but born to die! Cries from the infinite human seas, Waves thrice-winged with harmonies. Here I stand on a pier in the foam Seeing the songs to the beach go home, Dying in sand while the tide flows back, As it flowed of old in its fated track. Oh, hurrying tide that will not hear Your own foam children dying nearIs there no refuge-house of song, No home, no haven where songs belong? Oh, precious hymns that come and go! You perish, and I love you so!

FACTORY WINDOWS ARE ALWAYS BROKEN

Factory windows are always broken. Somebody's always throwing bricks, Somebody's always heaving cinders, Playing ugly Yahoo tricks.

Factory windows are always broken. Other windows are let alone. No one throws through the chapel-window The bitter, snarling, derisive stone.

Factory windows are always broken. Something or other is going wrong. Something is rotten—I think, in Denmark. End of the factory-window song.

TO MARY PICKFORD

MOVING-PICTURE ACTRESS

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

Mary Pickford, doll divine, Year by year, and every day At the movmg-picture play, You have been my valentine.

Once a free-limbed page in hose, Baby-Rosalind in flower, Cloakless, shrinking, in that hour How our reverent passion rose, How our fine desire you won. Kitchen-wench another day, Shapeless, wooden every way. Next, a fairy from the sun.

Once you walked a grown-up strand Fish-wife siren, full of lure,

Snaring with devices sure Lads who murdered on the sand. But on most days just a child Dimpled as no grown-folk are, Cold of kiss as some north star, Violet from the valleys wild. Snared as innocence must be, Fleeing, prisoned, chained, half-dead—At the end of tortures dread Roaring Cowboys set you free.

Fly, O song, to her to-day, Like a cowboy cross the land. Snatch her from Belasco's hand And that prison called Broadway.

All the village swains await One dear lily-girl demure,Saucy, dancing, cold and pure, Elf who must return in state.

BLANCHE SWEET

MOVING-PICTURE ACTRESS

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

Beauty has a throne-roomIn our humorous town, Spoiling its hob-goblins, Laughing shadows down. Rank musicians torture Ragtime ballads vile, But we walk serenely Down the odorous aisle. We forgive the squalor And the boom and squeal For the Great Queen flashes From the moving reel.

Just a prim blonde stranger In her early day, Hiding brilliant weapons, Too averse to play,

Then she burst upon us Dancing through the night. Oh, her maiden radiance, Veils and roses white. With new powers, yet cautious, Not too smart or skilled, That first flash of dancing Wrought the thing she willed:— Mobs of us made noble By her strong desire, By her white, uplifting, Royal romance-fire.

Though the tin pianoSnarls its tango rude,Though the chairs are shakyAnd the dramas crude,Solemn are her motions,Stately are her wiles,Filling oafs with wisdom, Saving souls with smiles;'Mid the restless actors She is rich and slow.She will stand like marble,She will pause and glow,

Though the film is twitching, Keep a peaceful reign, Ruler of her passion, Ruler of our pain!

SUNSHINE

FOR A VERY LITTLE GIRL, NOT A YEAR OLD.
CATHARINE FRAZEE WAKEFIELD.

The sun gives not directly The coal, the diamond crown; Not in a special basket Are these from Heaven let down.

The sun gives not directly The plough, man's iron friend; Not by a path or stairway Do tools from Heaven descend.

Yet sunshine fashions all thingsThat cut or burn or fly;And corn that seems upon the earthIs made in the hot sky.

The gravel of the roadbed, The metal of the gun, The engine of the airship Trace somehow from the sun.

And so your soul, my lady— (Mere sunshine, nothing more)— Prepares me the contraptions I work with or adore.

Within me cornfields rustle, Niagaras roar their way, Vast thunderstorms and rainbows Are in my thought to-day.

Ten thousand anvils sound there By forges flaming white, And many books I read there, And many books I write;

And freedom's bells are ringing, And bird-choirs chant and fly— The whole world works in me to-day And all the shining sky,

Because of one small lady Whose smile is my chief sun. She gives not any gift to me Yet all gifts, giving one. . . .

Amen.

AN APOLOGY FOR THE BOTTLE VOLCANIC

Sometimes I dip my pen and find the bottle full of fire, The salamanders flying forth I cannot but admire.It's Etna, or Vesuvius, if those big things were small, And then 'tis but itself again, and does not smoke at all.And so my blood grows cold. I say, "The bottle held but ink,And, if you thought it otherwise, the worser for your think." And then, just as I throw my scribbled paper on the floor,The bottle says, "Fe, fi, fo, fum," and steams and shouts some more.O sad deceiving ink, as bad as liquor in its way—All demons of a bottle size have pranced from you to-day,

And seized my pen for hobby-horse as witches ride a broom, And left a trail of brimstone words and blots and gobs of gloom. And yet when I am extra good and say my prayers at night, And mind my ma, and do the chores, and speak to folks polite, My bottle spreads a rainbow-mist, and from the vapor fine Ten thousand troops from fairyland come riding in a line. I've seen them on their chargers race around my study chair, They opened wide the window and rode forth upon the air. The army widened as it went, and into myriads grew, O how the lances shimmered, how the silvery trumpets blew!

WHEN GASSY THOMPSON STRUCK IT RICH

He paid a Swede twelve bits an hour Just to invent a fancy style To spread the celebration paintSo it would show at least a mile.

Some things they did I will not tell.They're not quite proper for a rhyme.But I will say Yim Yonson Swede Did sure invent a sunflower time.

One thing they did that I can tell And not offend the ladies here:— They took a goat to Simp's Saloon And made it take a bath in beer.

That ENTERprise took MANagement. They broke a wash-tub in the fray. But mister goat was bathed all right And bar-keep Simp was, too, they say.

They wore girls' pink straw hats to church And clucked like hens. They surely did. They bought two HOtel frying pans And in them down the mountain slid.

They went to Denver in good clothes, And kept Burt's grill-room wide awake, And cut about like jumping-jacks, And ordered seven-dollar steak.

They had the waiters whirling round Just sweeping up the smear and smash. They tried to buy the State-house flag. They showed the Janitor the cash.

And old Dan Tucker on a toot, Or John Paul Jones before the breeze, Or Indians eating fat fried dog, Were not as happy babes as these.

One morn, in hills near Cripple-creek With cheerful swears the two awoke. The Swede had twenty cents, all right. But Gassy Thompson was clean broke.

RHYMES FOR GLORIANA

I. THE DOLL UPON THE TOPMOST BOUGH

This doll upon the topmost bough, This playmate-gift, in Christmas dress,Was taken down and brought to meOne sleety night most comfortless.

Her hair was gold, her dolly-sash Was gray brocade, most good to see. The dear toy laughed, and I forgot The ill the new year promised me.

II. ON SUDDENLY RECEIVING A CURL LONG REFUSED

Oh, saucy gold circle of fairyland silk —Impudent, intimate, delicate treasure:A noose for my heart and a ring for my finger: — Here in my study you sing me a measure.

Whimsy and song in my little gray study! Words out of wonderland, praising her fineness,

Touched with her pulsating, delicate laughter, Saying, "The girl is all daring and kindness!"

Saying, "Her soul is all feminine gameness, Trusting her insights, ardent for living; She would be weeping with me and be laughing, A thoroughbred, joyous receiving and giving!"

III. ON RECEIVING ONE OF GLORIANA'S LETTERS

Your pen needs but a ruffle To be Pavlova whirling. It surely is a scalawag A-scamping down the page. A pretty little May-wind The morning buds uncurling. And then the white sweet Russian, The dancer of the age.

Your pen's the Queen of Sheba, Such serious questions bringing, That merry rascal Solomon Would show a sober face: —

And then again Pavlova To set our spirits singing, The snowy-swan bacchante All glamour, glee and grace.

IV. IN PRAISE OF GLORIANA'S REMARKABLE GOLDEN HAIR

The gleaming head of one fine friend Is bent above my little song, So through the treasure-pits of Heaven In fancy's shoes, I march along.

I wander, seek and peer and ponder In Splendor's last ensnaring lair— 'Mid burnished harps and burnished crowns Where noble chariots gleam and flare:

Amid the spirit-coins and gems, The plates and cups and helms of fire—The gorgeous-treasure-pits of Heaven—Where angel-misers slake desire!

O endless treasure-pits of gold Where silly angel-men make mirth—I think that I am there this hour, Though walking in the ways of earth!