The Congo and Other Poems | Page 5

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 Section
Twenty Poems in which the Moon is the Principal Figure of Speech
Once More -- To Gloriana
First 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 Be
Second 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, 1914?Intended to be Read Aloud
I. 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 Wings
First Section
Poems intended to be read aloud, or chanted.
The Congo
A Study of the Negro Race
I. Their Basic Savagery
Fat 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.
Light accents very light. Last line whispered. #
Or Mumbo-Jumbo, God of the Congo,?And all of the other?Gods of the Congo,?Mumbo-Jumbo will hoo-doo you,?Mumbo-Jumbo will hoo-doo you,?Mumbo-Jumbo will hoo-doo you."
II. Their Irrepressible High Spirits
# Rather shrill and high. #?Wild crap-shooters with a whoop and a call?Danced the juba in their gambling-hall?And laughed fit to kill, and shook the town,?And guyed the policemen and laughed them down?With a boomlay, boomlay, boomlay, BOOM.
# Read exactly as in first section. #?THEN I SAW THE CONGO, CREEPING THROUGH THE BLACK,?CUTTING THROUGH THE FOREST WITH A GOLDEN TRACK.
# Lay emphasis on the delicate ideas.
Keep as light-footed as possible. #
A negro fairyland swung into view,?A minstrel river?Where dreams come true.?The ebony palace soared on high?Through the blossoming trees to the evening sky.?The inlaid porches and casements shone?With gold and ivory and elephant-bone.?And the black crowd laughed till their sides were sore?At the baboon butler in the agate door,?And the well-known tunes of the parrot band?That trilled on the bushes of that magic land.
# With pomposity. #?A troupe