The Santa Fe Trail Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: A BCD E FAAAGG HGIJKKLLAAALLLLLMGGL LLL N ODDPPQQ OOAALLRRSS LLTT UUVVWXW YCZCWA2A2WZMMWWUCLLW UB2DDC2ULU ZLAAWGGALGGLODLLD2E2 WZE2WOWWWWWLLMWF2F2L AGGODLLD2E2WZE2WA2WL OAAAGGGG2G2FLAAGG ZOWWH2H2ZZC2C2WWLLLL OLOLDAZWZDW

A HumoresqueA
-
-
I asked the old Negro What is that bird that sings so wellB
He answered That is the Rachel Jane Hasn't it another nameC
lark or thrush or the like No Jus' Rachel JaneD
-
-
I In which a Racing Auto comes from the EastE
-
To be sung delicately to an improvised tuneF
This is the order of the music of the morningA
First from the far East comes but a crooningA
The crooning turns to a sunrise singingA
Hark to the calm horn balm horn psalm hornG
Hark to the faint horn quaint horn saint hornG
-
To be sung or read with great speedH
Hark to the pace horn chase horn race hornG
And the holy veil of the dawn has goneI
Swiftly the brazen car comes onJ
It burns in the East as the sunrise burnsK
I see great flashes where the far trail turnsK
Its eyes are lamps like the eyes of dragonsL
It drinks gasoline from big red flagonsL
Butting through the delicate mists of the morningA
It comes like lightning goes past roaringA
It will hail all the wind mills taunting ringingA
Dodge the cyclonesL
Count the milestonesL
On through the ranges the prairie dog tillsL
Scooting past the cattle on the thousand hillsL
To be read or sung in a rolling bassL
with some deliberationM
Ho for the tear horn scare horn dare hornG
Ho for the gay horn bark horn bay hornG
Ho for Kansas land that restores usL
When houses choke us and great books bore usL
Sunrise Kansas harvester's KansasL
A million men have found you before usL
-
-
II In which Many Autos pass WestwardN
-
In an even deliberate narrative mannerO
I want live things in their pride to remainD
I will not kill one grasshopper vainD
Though he eats a hole in my shirt like a doorP
I let him out give him one chance moreP
Perhaps while he gnaws my hat in his whimQ
Grasshopper lyrics occur to himQ
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I am a tramp by the long trail's borderO
Given to squalor rags and disorderO
I nap and amble and yawn and lookA
Write fool thoughts in my grubby bookA
Recite to the children explore at my easeL
Work when I work beg when I pleaseL
Give crank drawings that make folks stareR
To the half grown boys in the sunset glareR
And get me a place to sleep in the hayS
At the end of a live and let live dayS
-
I find in the stubble of the new cut weedsL
A whisper and a feasting all one needsL
The whisper of the strawberries white and redT
Here where the new cut weeds lie deadT
-
But I would not walk all alone till I dieU
Without some life drunk horns going byU
Up round this apple earth they comeV
Blasting the whispers of the morning dumbV
Cars in a plain realistic rowW
And fair dreams fadeX
When the raw horns blowW
-
On each snapping pennantY
A big black nameC
The careering cityZ
Whence each car cameC
Like a train caller in a Union DepotW
They tour from Memphis Atlanta SavannahA2
Tallahassee and TexarkanaA2
They tour from St Louis Columbus ManisteeW
They tour from Peoria Davenport KankakeeZ
Cars from Concord Niagara BostonM
Cars from Topeka Emporia and AustinM
Cars from Chicago Hannibal CairoW
Cars from Alton Oswego ToledoW
Cars from Buffalo Kokomo DelphiU
Cars from Lodi Carmi LoamiC
Ho for Kansas land that restores usL
When houses choke us and great books bore usL
While I watch the highroadW
And look at the skyU
While I watch the clouds in amazing grandeurB2
Roll their legions without rainD
Over the blistering Kansas plainD
While I sit by the milestoneC2
And watch the skyU
The United StatesL
Goes byU
-
To be given very harshlyZ
with a snapping explosivenessL
Listen to the iron horns ripping rackingA
Listen to the quack horns slack and clackingA
Way down the road trilling like a toadW
Here comes the dice horn here comes the vice hornG
Here comes the snarl horn brawl horn lewd hornG
Followed by the prude horn bleak and squeakingA
Some of them from Kansas some of them from KansasL
Here comes the hod horn plod horn sod hornG
Nevermore to roam horn loam horn home hornG
Some of them from Kansas some of them from KansasL
To be read or sung well nigh in a whisperO
Far away the Rachel JaneD
Not defeated by the hornsL
Sings amid a hedge of thornsL
Love and lifeD2
Eternal youthE2
Sweet sweet sweet sweetW
Dew and gloryZ
Love and truthE2
Sweet sweet sweet sweetW
Louder and louder faster and fasterO
WHILE SMOKE BLACK FREIGHTS ON THE DOUBLE TRACKED RAILROADW
DRIVEN AS THOUGH BY THE FOUL FIEND'S OX GOADW
SCREAMING TO THE WEST COAST SCREAMING TO THE EASTW
CARRY OFF A HARVEST BRING BACK A FEASTW
HARVESTING MACHINERY AND HARNESS FOR THE BEASTW
THE HAND CARS WHIZ AND RATTLE ON THE RAILSL
THE SUNLIGHT FLASHES ON THE TIN DINNER PAILSL
In a rolling bass with increasing deliberationM
And then in an instantW
Ye modern menF2
Behold the procession once againF2
With a snapping explosivenessL
Listen to the iron horns ripping rackingA
Listen to the wise horn desperate to advise hornG
Listen to the fast horn kill horn blast hornG
To be sung or read well nigh in a whisperO
Far away the Rachel JaneD
Not defeated by the hornsL
Sings amid a hedge of thornsL
Love and lifeD2
Eternal youthE2
Sweet sweet sweet sweetW
Dew and gloryZ
Love and truthE2
Sweet sweet sweet sweetW
To be brawled in the beginning with aA2
snapping explosiveness ending in a languorous chantW
The mufflers open on a score of carsL
With wonderful thunderO
CRACK CRACK CRACKA
CRACK CRACK CRACK CRACKA
CRACK CRACK CRACKA
Listen to the gold hornG
Old hornG
Cold hornG
And all of the tunes till the night comes downG2
On hay stack and ant hill and wind bitten townG2
To be sung to exactly the same whispered tuneF
as the first five linesL
Then far in the west as in the beginningA
Dim in the distance sweet in retreatingA
Hark to the faint horn quaint horn saint hornG
Hark to the calm horn balm horn psalm hornG
-
This section beginning sonorouslyZ
ending in a languorous whisperO
They are hunting the goals that they understandW
San Francisco and the brown sea sandW
My goal is the mystery the beggars winH2
I am caught in the web the night winds spinH2
The edge of the wheat ridge speaks to meZ
I talk with the leaves of the mulberry treeZ
And now I hear as I sit all aloneC2
In the dusk by another big Santa Fe stoneC2
The souls of the tall corn gathering roundW
And the gay little souls of the grass in the groundW
Listen to the tale the cotton wood tellsL
Listen to the wind mills singing o'er the wellsL
Listen to the whistling flutes without priceL
Of myriad prophets out of paradiseL
Harken to the wonderO
That the night air carriesL
Listen to the whisperO
Of the prairie fairiesL
Singing o'er the fairy plainD
To the same whispered tune as the Rachel Jane songA
but very slowlyZ
Sweet sweet sweet sweetW
Love and gloryZ
Stars and rainD
Sweet sweet sweet sweetW

Vachel Lindsay



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