Poet and writer, born in Springfield, Illinois, USA. He studied at Hiram College, Ohio (18971900), prepared for the ministry, then studied art in Chicago (1901) and New York (1905). He travelled throughout the USA reciting his poetry to earn a living (190612), and after the publication of his first major poem, General William Booth Enters Into Heaven (1913), he became an extremely popular lecturer and recitalist (191331). In works such as The Congo (1914), he employed rhythmic effects to capture the spirit of places and people that ordinary Americans could relate to. Despite his success he became severely depressed, and returned to Springfield and committed suicide.
Early years
Lindsay was born in Springfield, Illinois, where his father — Vachel Thomas Lindsay — worked as a medical doctor and had considerable financial resources. As a result, the Lindsays lived next door to the Illinois Executive Mansion, home of the Governor of Illinois. This location of his childhood home had its influence on Lindsay, and one of his poems, "The Eagle Forgotten", deals with Illinois governor John P. Altgeld, whom Lindsay admired for his courage in pardoning the anarchists involved in the Haymarket Riot — despite the strong protests of US President Grover Cleveland.
Growing up in Springfield influenced Lindsay in other ways as well, as evidenced in such poems as "On the Building of Springfield" and culminating in poems praising Springfield's most famous resident, Abraham Lincoln. In "The Ghosts of the Buffaloes", 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 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...Lindsay studied medicine at Hiram College in Ohio from 1897 to 1900, but dropped out before graduating. Lindsay remained interested in art for the rest of his life, drawing illustrations for some of his poetry.
Beginnings as a poet
While in New York in 1905 Lindsay turned to poetry in earnest.
From March to May, 1906, Lindsay traveled roughly 600 miles on foot from Jacksonville, Florida to Kentucky, again trading his poetry for food and lodging. From April to May, 1908, Lindsay undertook another poetry-selling trek, walking from New York City to Hiram, Ohio.
From May to September 1912 he travelled — again on foot — from Illinois to New Mexico, trading his poems for food and lodging. During this last trek, Lindsay composed his most famous poem, "The Congo".
"The Congo"
"The Congo", Lindsay's best-known poem, became controversial both for its groundbreaking use of sound and for the issues of racism it raises.
Novel use of sound
"The Congo" expressed a revolutionary aesthetic of sound for sound's sake.
Racist themes
Lindsay's view of the Congo can potentially upset modern sensibilities.
The poem reflects the racism prevalent in the United States of America at the turn of the 20th century, a racism pervasive even among those who — at least by the standards of the time — saw themselves as opposed to racism. That said, most white contemporaries viewed Lindsay as an advocate of blacks (See John Chapman Ward: "Vachel Lindsay Is 'Lying Low'", College Literature 12 (1985): 233-45).
Lindsay considered himself (probably wrongly) the "discoverer" of Langston Hughes after Hughes — then a busboy in Washington, D.C. — gave Lindsay copies of his poems when Lindsay ate at the restaurant where Hughes worked. Additionally, Lindsay wrote the 1918 poem "The Jazz Birds", praising the war efforts of African-Americans during World War I, an issue to which the vast majority of white America seemed blind.
Whatever the language Lindsay uses in "The Congo", one can keep an open mind regarding a poet seen as progressive regarding race issues for his day and who, after all, idolized Lincoln.
Whatever justification one can give Lindsay, these lines have clear racist overtones. The reference to people as "black bucks" had pejorative connotations at the time Lindsay wrote it.
Later years
Fame
Lindsay's fame as a poet grew in the 1910s.
Edgar Lee Masters published a biography of Lindsay in 1935 (four years after its subject's death) entitled 'Vachel Lindsay: A Poet in America'.
Lindsay himself indicated in the 1915 preface to "The Congo" that no less a figure than William Butler Yeats respected his work. In 1915, Lindsay gave a poetry reading to President Woodrow Wilson and the entire Cabinet.
Marriage, children and financial troubles
Despite his fame, Lindsay's private life featured many disappointments, such as his unsuccessful courtship in 1914 of fellow poet Sara Teasdale, who chose a rich businessman — Ernst Filsinger — instead of him. While this itself may have caused Lindsay to become more concerned with money, his financial pressures increased even more later on.
After moving to Spokane, Washington in 1924, Lindsay met and then — on May 19, 1925 — married the 23-year-old Elizabeth Connor. These financial worries escalated even more when in May 1926 the Lindsays had a daughter — Susan Doniphan Lindsay — and in September 1927 a son — Nicholas Cave Lindsay.
Desperate for money to meet the growing demands of his growing family, Lindsay undertook an exhausting string of readings throughout the East and Midwest that lasted from October 1928 through March 1929.
On his return, in April 1929, Lindsay and his family moved to the house of his birth in Springfield, Illinois: an expensive undertaking. In that same year, and coinciding with the Stock Market Crash of 1929, Lindsay published two more books of poems 'The Litany of Washington Street' and 'Every Soul A Circus'.
Suicide
Crushed by financial worry, in failing health from his six-month road trip, and sunk into depression, on December 5, 1931, Lindsay committed suicide by drinking a bottle of Lysol.
Today, the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency maintains the Vachel Lindsay Home at 603 South Fifth Street in Springfield, the site of Lindsay's birth and death.
User Comments Add a comment…