General William Booth Enters into Heaven | Page 3

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General William Booth Enters into Heaven and Other Poems
by
Vachel Lindsay [Nicholas Vachel Lindsay, Illinois Poet -- 1879-1931]
[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.]
General William Booth Enters into Heaven and Other Poems

| 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
[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