A Poetry Analysis: Vachel Lindsay: Love, And Themes

Meghan Pfeiffer

Mrs. Beal

Poetry Foundations

13 March 2015

Vachel Lindsay:

A Poetry Analysis

Vachel Lindsay once said, “life is a loom weaving illusion” (Lindsay, The Chinese Nightingale, 12). Lindsay wrote hundreds of poems, describing and analyzing the fabric of life and its threads. Through the questions of “what?”, “how?”, and “why?” Lindsay’s work itself can be analyzed. Vachel Lindsay uses content, poetic language, and performance to forge a more intimate connection with his audience. Lindsay’s motifs and themes range far and wide, though there are a few emphasized ones. First is love in its many forms. Just as C.S. Lewis explains in his book, The Four Loves there are four general types of love: affection (brotherly), friendship, romance, and unconditional (God’s love). Lindsay’s work, whether he knew it or not, spans

When he performs, these unique qualities immerse the audience deeper into the poem, creating a more enjoyable experience. In illustration, many of his works were written to a melody or adopted one soon after, which strengthens the melodic devices found in his work even more. For example, alliteration is a recurring pattern in several poems. This includes “wondrous woods” in “In Memory of a Child” (Lindsay, Collected Poems, 289) and “humble hours” in “The Dandelion” (309). One example of onomatopoeia is in the first and last lines of “A Dirge for a Righteous Kitten” with “ding-dong” (135). Another device that adds to the lyrical verse of Vachel’s poems is repetition. Whether to emphasize a point or to create a chant, Lindsay found repetition a reliable, though worn, wrench in his toolbox of poetry devices. For example, in “The King of Yellow Butterflies” he repeats, “they shiver by the shallow pool,”, “they’ll climb into your cattle-shed,”, and more lines four times each (Lindsay, Chinese Nightingale,