Vachel Lindsay

Nicholas Vachel Lindsay (1879 - 1931) was an American poet. He is considered a founder of modern singing poetry, as he referred to it, in which verses are meant to be sung or chanted. Growing up in Springfield influenced Lindsay in other ways, as evidenced in such poems as "On the Building of Springfield" and culminating in poems praising Springfield's most famous resident, Abraham Lincoln. In "Lincoln," Lindsay exclaims, "Would I might rouse the Lincoln in you all!" In his 1914 poem "Abraham...See more

Nicholas Vachel Lindsay (1879 - 1931) was an American poet. He is considered a founder of modern singing poetry, as he referred to it, in which verses are meant to be sung or chanted. Growing up in Springfield influenced Lindsay in other ways, as evidenced in such poems as "On the Building of Springfield" and culminating in poems praising Springfield's most famous resident, Abraham Lincoln. In "Lincoln," Lindsay exclaims, "Would I might rouse the Lincoln in you all!" In his 1914 poem "Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight (In Springfield, Illinois)," Lindsay specifically places Lincoln in Springfield, with the poem's opening: It is portentous, and a thing of state That here at midnight, in our little town A mourning figure walks, and will not rest... See less