Poem by Vachel Lindsay

The North Star Whispers to the Blacksmith’s Son

THE North Star whispers: ”You are one 
Of those whose course no chance can change. 
You blunder, but are not undone, 
Your spirit-task is fixed and strange. 

”When here you walk, a bloodless shade, 
A singer all men else forget. 
Your chants of hammer, forge and spade 
Will move the prarie-village yet. 

”That young, stiff-necked, reviling town 
Beholds your fancies on her walls, 
And paints them out or tears them down, 
Or bars them from her feasting halls. 

”Yet shall the fragments still remain; 
Yet shall remain some watch-tower strong 
That ivy-vines will not disdain, 
Haunted and trembling with your song. 

”Your flambeau in the dusk shall burn, 
Flame high in storms, flame white and clear; 
Your ghost in gleaming robes return 
And burn a deathless incense here.”

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

Print

1269 Views

Last Poems

To Russian version