Vachel Lindsay
IN PRAISE OF JOHNNY APPLESEED[1]
(Born 1775. Died 1847)
I. Over the Appalachian Barricade
To be read like old leaves on the elm tree of Time. Sifting soft winds with sentence and rhyme.In the days of President Washington,
The glory of the nations,
Dust and ashes,
Snow and sleet,
And hay and oats and wheat,
Blew west,
Crossed the Appalachians,
Found the glades of rotting leaves, the soft deer-pastures,
The farms of the far-off future
In the forest.
Colts jumped the fence,
Snorting, ramping, snapping, sniffing,
With gastronomic calculations,
Crossed the Appalachians,
The east walls of our citadel,
And turned to gold-horned unicorns,
Feasting in the dim, volunteer farms of the forest.
Stripedest, kickingest kittens escaped,
Caterwauling "Yankee Doodle Dandy,"
- ↑ The best account of John Chapman's career, under the name "Johnny Appleseed," is to be found in Harper's Monthly Magazine, November, 1871.
