General William Booth Enters into Heaven | Page 3

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 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