Tree with a Bird in it — The Hoboken Grackle and the Hobo by Vachel Lindsay

_Vachel Lindsay_ (Bounding on toward the end of the proceedings with a bundle over his shoulder, and making the rest join in at the high spots.

) THE HOBOKEN GRACKLE AND THE HOBO

(An Explanation) As I went marching, torn-socked, free, [_Steadily_] With my red heart marching all agog in front of me And my throbbing heels And my throbbing feet Making an impression on the Hoboken street [_With energy_] Then I saw a pear-tree, a fowl, a bird, And the worst sort of noise an Illinoiser ever heard!

[_With surprise_] Banks--of--poets--round--that--tree-- _All_ of the Poetry Society but _me_!

All a-cackle, addressed it as a grackle [_Chatteringly Showed me its hackle (that proved it was a fly) like parrots_] Tweet, tweet, tweet, tweet, tweet, [_Cooingly, yet Gosh, what a packed street!

with impatience_] 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.

And I watched their unmade poetry raise up like foam [_Intemperately_] And I took my bandanna again on my stick [_With calm majesty_] And I walked to the grocery and took my pick And I bought crackers, canned shrimps, corn, [_With domesticity Codfish like flakes of snow at morn, for the moment_] 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!

_ [Illustration] DIES ILLA: A BIRD OF A MASQUE

Being a Collaboration by Percy Mackaye, Isabel Fiske Conant and Josephine Preston Peabody.