Lindsay, Vachel - Babette Deutsch (essay date 1952)
Babette Deutsch (essay date 1952)
SOURCE: "Farewell, Romance," in Poetry In Our Time, Columbia University Press, 1956, pp. 28-54.
[In the following essay, originally published in 1952, Deutsch categorizes Lindsay as a poet in the Romantic tradition.]
A native of Springfield, Illinois, Lindsay was insistently aware of his heritage. His feeling for the town, half sentimental, half visionary, as a kind of New Jerusalem, is a permanent element in his verse. Among other peculiarly American traditions of his childhood was the fanfare of the torchlight parades at election time, and the memory of them, like that of the visits of returned missionaries, keeps breaking out in his exuberant stanzas. His work is a curious medley of strong local patriotism and the enthusiasm of a young evangelist, seeking utterance in the mysterious music of which, as Lindsay early discovered, Poe was the master. All this indicates no kinship with the British sailor...
[The entire page is 1405 words long]
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