Vachel Lindsay (Вэчел Линдсей)

On Reading Omar Khayyam

[During an anti-saloon campaign, in central Illinois]

In the midst of the battle I turned, 
(For the thunders could flourish without me) 
And hid by a rose-hung wall, 
Forgetting the murder about me; 
And wrote, from my wound, on the stone, 
In mirth, half prayer, half play: — 
”Send me a picture book, 
Send me a song, to-day.” 

I saw him there by the wall 
When I scarce had written the line, 
In the enemy’s colors dressed 
And the serpent-standard of wine 
Writhing its withered length 
From his ghostly hands o’er the ground, 
And there by his shadowy breast 
The glorious poem I found. 

This was his world-old cry: 
Thus read the famous prayer: 
”Wine, wine, wine and flowers 
And cup-bearers always fair!” 
’Twas a book of the snares of earth 
Bordered in gold and blue, 
And I read each line to the wind 
And read to the roses too: 
And they nodded their womanly heads 
And told to the wall just why 
For wine of the earth men bleed, 
Kingdoms and empires die. 
I envied the grape stained sage: 
(The roses were praising him.) 
The ways of the world seemed good 
And the glory of heaven dim. 
I envied the endless kings 
Who found great pearls in the mire, 
Who bought with the nation’s life 
The cup of delicious fire. 

But the wine of God came down, 
And I drank it out of the air. 
(Fair is the serpent-cup, 
But the cup of God more fair.) 
The wine of God came down 
That makes no drinker to weep. 
And I went back to battle again 
Leaving the singer asleep.

1. To the United States Senate
2. To Reformers in Despair
3. The Perfect Marriage
4. On the Building of Springfield
5. Upon Returning to the Country Road

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