In Memory of a Child

By Vachel Lindsay 1879–1931 Vachel Lindsay

The angels guide him now,

And watch his curly head,

And lead him in their games,

The little boy we led.

He cannot come to harm,

He knows more than we know,

His light is brighter far

Than daytime here below.

III

His path leads on and on,

Through pleasant lawns and flowers,

His brown eyes open wide

At grass more green than ours.

With playmates like himself,

The shining boy will sing,

Exploring wondrous woods,

Sweet with eternal spring.

Yet, he is lost to us,

Far is his path of gold,

Far does the city seem,

Lonely our hearts and old.

Biography

Vachel Lindsay became famous in his day as a traveling bard whose dramatic delivery in public readings helped keep appreciation for poetry as a spoken art alive in the American Midwest. With their strong rhythms rooted in the American vernacular, revival meetings, the soap box, and the works of Edgar Allan Poe and William Blake, poems such as "The Santa Fe Trail," "Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight," and "The Congo" have become . . .

Continue reading this biography