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[85] <div></div> <h2> Vachel Lindsay </h2> (Bounding on toward the end of the proceedings with a bundle over his shoulder, and making the rest join in at the high spots.) <h3> THE HOBOKEN GRACKLE AND THE HOBO </h3> (An Explanation) <div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> [Steadily] As I went marching, torn-socked, free, With my red heart marching all agog in front of me And my throbbing heels And my throbbing feet [With energy] Making an impression on the Hoboken street Then I saw a pear-tree, a fowl, a bird, [With surprise] And the worst sort of noise an Illinoiser ever heard! Banks—of—poets—round—that—tree— All of the Poetry Society but me! [Chatteringly like parrots] All a-cackle, addressed it as a grackle Showed me its hackle (that proved it was a fly) [Cooingly, yet with impatience] [86] Tweet, tweet, tweet, tweet, tweet, Gosh, what a packed street! The Secretary, President and TREASURER went by! "That's not a grackle," said I to all of him, Seething with their poetry, iron-tongued, grim, "That's an English sparrow on that limb!" And they all went home No more to roam. [Intemperately] And I watched their unmade poetry raise up like foam [With calm majesty] And I took my bandanna again on my stick And I walked to the grocery and took my pick [With domesticity for the moment] And I bought crackers, canned shrimps, corn, Codfish like flakes of snow at morn, Buns for breakfast and a fountain-pen Laid down change and marched out again And I walked through Hoboken, torn-socked, free, With my red heart galumphing all agog in front of me! </div> </div> [87] <div style="height: 2em;"> </div> <div class="figure"> <ANTIMG src="images/i012.png" width-obs="350" height-obs="425" title="Caricature of Vachel Lindsay" alt="(caricature of Vachel Lindsay)" /></div> [88] <div style="height: 2em;"> </div>  <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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