On the last evening of National Poetry Month, I want to share with you a song authored by John C. Van Orman called “Vachel Lindsay Walks Springfield.” It is about Vachel Lindsay (pictured above, my fav photo of Vach by the way) fashioned after Lindsay’s poem “Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight” published in the 1919 book, The Congo and Other Poems.
Van Orman describes the
story behind his tune: “I wrote the first two verses of this song in
Vachel
Lindsay Walks
Vachel Lindsay walks
He goes to the
Statehouse ’cause he doesn’t have the room,
That Abraham Lincoln has
in the big tomb.
And he stands on the
corner, and beats on his drum,
Summoning
Then he goes to the big
dome on
When
The man of the ages
greets the man of the hour,
Where men of mere
moments parley for power.
Lincoln and Lindsay walk
Among tourists with
Civil War flags and hats,
And Abe says to Vachel,
“I can’t figure that!
They dwell on my murder
and the glories of war,
And sadly ignore your
own peaceful chore.”
Vachel says, “Abe, you
wrote some poems, too.”
Abe says, “Yes, I wrote
a few.
But nothing like you,
and it’s awkward someway
To be so revered in the
Vachel Lindsay walks
He and Will Spaulding
stroll by the lakeshore
Among all the people
they did it all for.
John Altgeld still
stands to defend people’s rights,
That men of mere moments
now steal in the night.
Carl Sandburg is singing
an old-timey tune,
While Masters keeps
singing his songs of the Spoon.
Together as always, they
wish us all well,
The carillon laughs like
a tree full of bells.
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