Poem by Vachel Lindsay

A Rhyme About an Electrical Advertising Sign

I LOOK on the specious electrical light 
Blatant, mechanical, crawling and white, 
Wickedly red or malignantly green 
Like the beads of a young Senegambian queen. 
Showing, while millions of souls hurry on, 
The virtues of collars, from sunset till dawn, 
By dart or by tumble of whirl within whirl, 
Starting new fads for the shame-weary girl, 
By maggotry motions in sickening line 
Proclaiming a hat or a soup or a wine, 
While there far above the steep cliffs of the street

The stars sing a message elusive and sweet. 
Now man cannot rest in his pleasure and toil 
His clumsy contraptions of coil upon coil 
Till the thing he invents, in its use and its range, 
Leads on to the marvelous CHANGE BEYOND CHANGE 
Some day this old Broadway shall climb to the skies, 
As a ribbon of cloud on a soul-wind shall rise. 
And we shall be lifted, rejoicing by night, 
Till we join with the planets who choir their delight. 
The signs in the street and the signs in the skies 
Shall make me a Zodiac, guiding and wise, 
And Broadway make one with that marvelous stair 
That is climbed by the rainbow-clad spirits of prayer.

1. To the United States Senate
2. The Perfect Marriage
3. To Reformers in Despair
4. The Booker Washington Trilogy
5. The Illinois Village

Print

1243 Views

Last Poems

To Russian version