Vachel Lindsay
Vachel
Lindsay, in full Nicholas Vachel Lindsay
(b. Nov. 10, 1879, Springfield, Ill.,
U.S.—d. Dec. 5, 1931, Springfield),
American poet who—in an attempt to
revive poetry as an oral art form of the
common people—wrote and read to
audiences compositions with powerful
rhythms that had an immediate appeal.
After
three years at Hiram College, Hiram,
Ohio, Lindsay left in 1900 to study art
in Chicago and New York City. He
supported himself in part by lecturing
for the YMCA and the Anti-Saloon League.
Having begun to write poetry, he
wandered for several summers throughout
the country reciting his poems in return
for food and shelter.
He
first received recognition in 1913, when
Poetry magazine published his poem on
William Booth, founder of the Salvation
Army. His poems of this kind are studded
with vivid imagery and express both his
ardent patriotism and his romantic
appreciation of nature. Lindsay’s poetry
depicted with evocative clarity such
leaders of American cults and causes as
Alexander Campbell (a founder of the
Disciples of Christ), Johnny Appleseed,
John Peter Altgeld, and William Jennings
Bryan. Lindsay recited his poetry in a
highly rhythmic and syncopated manner
that was accompanied by dramatic
gestures in an attempt to achieve
contact with his audience. Among the 20
or so poems that audiences demanded to
hear—so often that Lindsay grew weary of
reciting them—were “General William
Booth Enters into Heaven,” “The Congo,”
and “The Santa Fe Trail.” His best
volumes of verse include Rhymes To Be
Traded for Bread (1912), General William
Booth Enters into Heaven and Other Poems
(1913), The Congo and Other Poems
(1914), and The Chinese Nightingale and
Other Poems (1917). Both Lindsay’s
poetic powers and his faculty of
self-criticism steadily declined during
the 1920s, and he lost his popularity.
He committed suicide by drinking poison.
