Vachel Lindsay: The Flower-Fed Buffaloes

The flower-fed buffaloes of the spring
In the days of long ago,
Ranged where the locomotives sing
And the prairie flowers lie low:
The tossing, blooming, perfumed grass
Is swept away by wheat,
Wheels and wheels and wheels spin by
In the spring that still is sweet.
But the flower-fed buffaloes of the spring
Left us long ago,
They gore no more, they bellow no more:–
With the Blackfeet lying low,
With the Pawnee lying low.

Lindsay (1879-1931) is dated and largely forgotten, but in his time was a legendary populist poet and reciter. Robert Graves gave this account of Lindsay's 1920 recital at Oxford University, which wouldn't have been the most welcoming venue for a cornpone American: "Vachel Lindsay was a most staggering success. I meant to hit Oxford a pretty heavy blow by arranging for his invitation by the University, but did not expect to inflict a knockout, as occurred.... By two minutes, Lindsay had the respectable and intellectual and cynical audience listening. By ten, intensely excited; by twenty elated and losing self control. By half an hour completely under his influence, by forty minutes roaring like a bonfire. At the end of the hour they lifted off the roof and refused to disperse, and [Professor] Raleigh in returning thanks said he had never been so moved by a recitation in his life – quite like the pictures." Incidentally, Lindsay wrote the first serious study of movies in English.