This may be another statement of Mr.Lindsay's plea for a closer relation between the poet and his audience, for a return to the healthier open-air conditions, and immediate personal contacts, in the art of the Greeks and of primitive nations.Such conditions and contacts may still be found, if the world only knew it, in the wonderful song-dances of the Hopis and others of our aboriginal tribes.They may be found, also, in a measure, in the quick response between artist and audience in modern vaudeville.
They are destined to a wider and higher influence; in fact, the development of that influence, the return to primitive sympathies between artist and audience, which may make possible once more the assertion of primitive creative power, is recognized as the immediate movement in modern art.It is a movement strong enough to persist in spite of extravagances and absurdities; strong enough, it may be hoped, to fulfil its purpose and revitalize the world.
It is because Mr.Lindsay's poetry seems to be definitely in that movement that it is, I think, important.
Harriet Monroe.
Table of ContentsIntroduction.By Harriet Monroe First SectionPoems intended to be read aloud, or chanted.
The Congo The Santa Fe Trail The Firemen's Ball The Master of the Dance The Mysterious Cat A Dirge for a Righteous Kitten Yankee Doodle The Black Hawk War of the Artists The Jingo and the Minstrel I Heard Immanuel Singing Second SectionIncenseAn Argument A Rhyme about an Electrical Advertising Sign In Memory of a Child Galahad, Knight Who Perished The Leaden-eyed An Indian Summer Day on the Prairie The Hearth Eternal The Soul of the City Receives the Gift of the Holy Spirit By the Spring, at Sunset I Went down into the Desert Love and Law The Perfect Marriage Darling Daughter of Babylon The Amaranth The Alchemist's Petition Two Easter Stanzas The Traveller-heart The North Star Whispers to the Blacksmith's Son Third SectionA Miscellany called "the Christmas Tree"This Section is a Christmas Tree The Sun Says his Prayers Popcorn, Glass Balls, and Cranberries (As it were)I.The Lion II.An Explanation of the Grasshopper III.The Dangerous Little Boy Fairies IV.The Mouse that gnawed the Oak-tree Down V.Parvenu VI.The Spider and the Ghost of the Fly VII.Crickets on a Strike How a Little Girl Danced In Praise of Songs that Die Factory Windows are always Broken To Mary Pickford Blanche Sweet Sunshine An Apology for the Bottle Volcanic When Gassy Thompson Struck it Rich Rhymes for Gloriana I.The Doll upon the Topmost Bough II.On Suddenly Receiving a Curl Long Refused III.On Receiving One of Gloriana's Letters IV.In Praise of Gloriana's Remarkable Golden Hair Fourth SectionTwenty Poems in which the Moon is the Principal Figure of SpeechOnce More -- To GlorianaFirst Section: Moon Poems for the Children/Fairy-tales for the Children I.Euclid II.The Haughty Snail-king III.What the Rattlesnake Said IV.The Moon's the North Wind's Cooky V.Drying their Wings VI.What the Gray-winged Fairy Said VII.Yet Gentle will the Griffin BeSecond Section: The Moon is a Mirror I.Prologue.A Sense of Humor II.On the Garden-wall III.Written for a Musician IV.The Moon is a Painter V.The Encyclopaedia VI.What the Miner in the Desert Said VII.What the Coal-heaver Said VIII.What the Moon Saw IX.What Semiramis Said X.What the Ghost of the Gambler Said XI.The Spice-tree XII.The Scissors-grinder XIII.My Lady in her White Silk Shawl XIV.Aladdin and the Jinn XV.The Strength of the Lonely Fifth Section War.September 1, 1914Intended to be Read AloudI.Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight II.A Curse for Kings III.Who Knows?
IV.To Buddha V.The Unpardonable Sin VI.Above the Battle's Front VII.Epilogue.Under the Blessing of Your Psyche WingsFirst SectionPoems intended to be read aloud, or chanted.
The CongoA Study of the Negro RaceI.Their Basic SavageryFat black bucks in a wine-barrel room, Barrel-house kings, with feet unstable, # A deep rolling bass.#Sagged and reeled and pounded on the table, Pounded on the table, Beat an empty barrel with the handle of a broom, Hard as they were able, Boom, boom, BOOM, With a silk umbrella and the handle of a broom, Boomlay, boomlay, boomlay, BOOM.
THEN I had religion, THEN I had a vision.
I could not turn from their revel in derision.
# More deliberate.Solemnly chanted.#
THEN I SAW THE CONGO, CREEPING THROUGH THE BLACK, CUTTING THROUGH THE FOREST WITH A GOLDEN TRACK.
Then along that riverbank A thousand miles Tattooed cannibals danced in files;Then I heard the boom of the blood-lust song # A rapidly piling climax of speed and racket.#And a thigh-bone beating on a tin-pan gong.
And "BLOOD" screamed the whistles and the fifes of the warriors, "BLOOD" screamed the skull-faced, lean witch-doctors, "Whirl ye the deadly voo-doo rattle, Harry the uplands, Steal all the cattle, Rattle-rattle, rattle-rattle, Bing.
Boomlay, boomlay, boomlay, BOOM,"
# With a philosophic pause.#
A roaring, epic, rag-time tune From the mouth of the Congo To the Mountains of the Moon.
Death is an Elephant, # Shrilly and with a heavily accented metre.#Torch-eyed and horrible, Foam-flanked and terrible.
BOOM, steal the pygmies, BOOM, kill the Arabs, BOOM, kill the white men, HOO, HOO, HOO.
# Like the wind in the chimney.#
Listen to the yell of Leopold's ghost Burning in Hell for his hand-maimed host.
Hear how the demons chuckle and yell Cutting his hands off, down in Hell.
Listen to the creepy proclamation, Blown through the lairs of the forest-nation, Blown past the white-ants' hill of clay, Blown past the marsh where the butterflies play: --"Be careful what you do, # All the o sounds very golden.Heavy accents very heavy.