# General William Booth enters into Heaven, and other poems

Although not credited, the 'Memorial' at the beginning of this book consists of the first five paragraphs from a similarly titled piece by William Hayes Ward in Poems of Sidney Lanier (1884), edited by Mary Day Lanier.
GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH ENTERS INTO HEAVEN AND OTHER POEMS
* BY VACHEL LINDSAY
* THE CONGO AND OTHER POEMS
* GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH ENTERS INTO HEAVEN
* THE ART OF THE MOVING PICTURE
* ADVENTURES WHILE PREACHING THE GOSPEL OF BEAUTY
GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH ENTERS INTO HEAVEN AND OTHER POEMS BY
VACHEL LINDSAY
NEW YORK
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
1916
Copyright 1913 by
The Macmillan Company
Printed in America
This book is dedicated to
Dr. Arthur Paul Wakefield
and
Olive Lindsay Wakefield
Missionaries in China
MEMORIAL.
Because I believe that Sidney Lanier was much more than a clever artisan in rhyme and metre; because he will, I think, take his final rank with the first princes of American song, I am glad to provide this slight memorial. There is sufficient material in his letters for an extremely interesting biography, which could be properly prepared only by his wife. These pages can give but a sketch of his life and work.
Sidney Lanier was born at Macon, Ga., on the third of February, 1842. His earliest known ancestor of the name was Jerome Lanier, a Huguenot refugee, who was attached to the court of Queen Elizabeth, very likely as a musical composer; and whose son, Nicholas, was in high favor with James I. and Charles I., as director of music, painter, and political envoy; and whose grandson, Nicholas, held a similar position in the court of Charles II. A portrait of the elder Nicholas Lanier, by his friend Van Dyck, was sold, with other pictures belonging to Charles I., after his execution. The younger Nicholas was the first Marshal, or presiding officer, of the Society of Musicians, incorporated at the Restoration, "for the improvement of the science and the interest ​of its professors;" and it is remarkable that four others of the name of Lanier were among the few incorporators, one of them, John Lanier, very likely father of the Sir John Lanier who fought as Major General at the Battle of the Boyne, and fell gloriously at Steinkirk along with the brave Douglas.
The American branch of the family originated as early as 1716 with the immigration of Thomas Lanier who settled with other colonists on a grant of land ten miles square, which includes the present city of Richmond, Va. One of the family, a Thomas Lanier, married an aunt of George Washington. The family is somewhat widely scattered, chiefly in the Southern States.
The father of our poet was Robert S. Lanier, a lawyer still living in Macon, Ga. His mother was Mary Anderson, a Virginian of Scotch descent, from a family that supplied members of the House of Burgesses of Virginia for many years and in more than one generation, and was gifted in poetry, music, and oratory.
His earliest passion was for music. As a child he learned to play, almost without instruction, on every kind of instrument he could find; and while yet a boy he played the flute, organ, piano, violin, guitar, and banjo, especially devoting himself to the flute in deference to his father, who feared him for the powerful fascination of the violin. For it was the violin-voice that, above all others, commanded his soul. He has related that during his college days it would sometimes so exalt him in rapture, that presently he would sink from his solitary music-worship into a deep trance, thence to awake, alone, on the floor of his room, sorely shaken in nerve.
CONTENTS :
| general william booth enters into heaven | PAGE 1 |
| the drunkards in the street | 5 |
| the city that will not repent | 6 |
| the trap | 9 |
| where is david the next king of israel? | 12 |
| on reading omar khayyam | 14 |
| the beggar's valentine | 16 |
| honor among scamps | 19 |
| the gamblers | 20 |
| on the road to nowhere | 22 |
| upon returning to the country road | 24 |
| the angel and the clown | 26 |
| springfield magical | 28 |
| incense | 29 |
| the wedding of the rose and the lotos | 30 |
| king arthur's men have come again | 32 |
| foreign missions in battle array | 34 |
| star of my heart | 36 |
| look you, i'll go pray | 38 |
| at mass | 39 |
| heart of god | 40 |
| the empty boats | 41 |
| with a bouquet of twelve roses | 42 |
| st. francis of assisi | 43 ​ |
| buddha | 44 |
| a prayer to all the dead among mine own people | 45 |
| to reformers in despair | 46 |
| why i voted the socialist ticket | 47 |
| to the united states senate | 49 |
| the knight in disguise | 52 |
| the wizard in the street | 55 |
| the eagle that is forgotten | 58 |
| shakespeare | 60 |
| michaelangelo | 61 |
| titian | 62 |
| lincoln | 63 |
| the cornfields | 64 |
| sweet briars of the stairways | 65 |
| fantasies and whims:— |
| the fairy bridal hymn | 67 |
| the potato's dance | 68 |
| how a little girl sang | 70 |
| ghosts in love | 71 |
| the queen of bubbles | 72 |
| the tree of laughing bells, or the wings of morning | 74 |
| sweethearts of the year | 82 |
| the sorceress | 85 |
| caught in a net | 86 |
| eden in winter | 87 |
| genesis | 91 |
| queen mab in the village | 94 |
| the dandelion | 99 |
| the light o' the moon | 100 |
| a net to snare the moonlight | 106 ​ |
| beyond the moon | 107 |
| the song of the garden-toad | 109 |
| a gospel of beauty:— |
| the proud farmer | 112 |
| the illinois village | 114 |
| on the building of springfield | 117 |
The author wishes to thank the editors of Poetry, The Outlook, The Independent, The
American Magazine, and Farm and Fireside
(Springfield, Ohio), for permission to reprint
poems included in this volume.
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1929.
The longest-living author of this work died in 1931, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 92 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.
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