By Vachel Lindsay
Would I might rouse the Lincoln in you all,
That which is gendered in the wilderness
From lonely prairies and God’s tenderness.
Imperial soul, star of a weedy stream,
Born where the ghosts of buffaloes still dream,
Whose spirit hoof-beats storm above his grave,
Above that breast of earth and prairie-fire—
Fire that freed the slave.
Source: General William Booth Enters into Heaven and Other Poems (1913)
Poet Bio
More By This Poet
The Traveller-Heart
I would be one with the dark, dark earth:—
Follow the plough with a yokel tread.
I would be part of the Indian corn,
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I would be one with the lavish earth,
Eating the bee-stung apples red:
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It is portentous, and a thing of state
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Near the old court-house pacing up and down.
Or by his homestead, or in shadowed yards
He lingers where his children...
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By noon we could discern their massive coils
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if time is queer/and memory is trans/and my hands hurt in the cold/then
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