Poem by Vachel Lindsay

On the Garden Wall

OH, once I walked a garden 
In dreams. ’Twas yellow grass. 
And many orange-trees grew there 
In sand as white as glass. 
The curving, wide wall-border 
Was marble, like the snow. 
I walked that wall a fairy-prince 
And, pacing quaint and slow, 
Beside me were my pages, 
Two giant, friendly birds. 
Half swan they were, half peacock. 
They spake in courtier-words. 
Their inner wings a charriot, 
Their outer wings for flight, 
They lifted me from dreamland. 
We bade those trees good-night. 
Swiftly above the stars we rode. 
I looked below me soon. 
The white-walled garden I had ruled 
Was one lone flower--the moon.

1. The Illinois Village
2. The Drunkards in the Street
3. The Alchemist’s Petition
4. Sweethearts of the Year
5. The City That Will Not Repent

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