Unfortunately the poem sounds sounds racist to modern ears and so isn't read as often as it once was. That might be okay if there was an adequate substitute, but there's not...none that I know of, anyway. There's the beautifully paced prologue to "Romeo and Juliet": "Two houses / both alike in dignity / in fair Verona / where we lay our scene." There's also Blake's famous stanza about the tiger. They're great, and very hard to forget...still.....
Anyway, if you can forgive the racial content, here's (below) an excerpt from Lindsay's "Congo."
THE CONGO
by Vachel Linsay
Well, it goes on.
Here's a reading by Lindsay himself. Fans regard this as definitive, but I can imagine one that might be even better. See what you think.
I remember this poem being played on LP in my sophomore year high school English class. In particular, I recall a line (that I didn't hear in this recording) that of "Mumbo Jumbo will voodoo you". I don't know if that was a creation of my own but anyhow, I was transfixed by this as a kid. His reading of the poem is incredible. Thanks Eddie!
ReplyDelete-Doug