On each snapping pennant A big black name:-- The careering city Whence each car came. # Like a train-caller in a Union Depot. # They tour from Memphis, Atlanta, Savannah, Tallahassee and Texarkana. They tour from St. Louis, Columbus, Manistee, They tour from Peoria, Davenport, Kankakee. Cars from Concord, Niagara, Boston, Cars from Topeka, Emporia, and Austin. Cars from Chicago, Hannibal, Cairo. Cars from Alton, Oswego, Toledo. Cars from Buffalo, Kokomo, Delphi, Cars from Lodi, Carmi, Loami. Ho for Kansas, land that restores us When houses choke us, and great books bore us! While I watch the highroad And look at the sky, While I watch the clouds in amazing grandeur Roll their legions without rain Over the blistering Kansas plain-- While I sit by the milestone And watch the sky, The United States Goes by. # To be given very harshly, with a snapping explosiveness. # Listen to the iron-horns, ripping, racking. Listen to the quack-horns, slack and clacking. Way down the road, trilling like a toad, Here comes the _dice_-horn, here comes the _vice_-horn, Here comes the _snarl_-horn, _brawl_-horn, _lewd_-horn, Followed by the _prude_-horn, bleak and squeaking:-- (Some of them from Kansas, some of them from Kansas.) Here comes the _hod_-horn, _plod_-horn, _sod_-horn, Nevermore-to-_roam_-horn, _loam_-horn, _home_-horn. (Some of them from Kansas, some of them from Kansas.) # To be read or sung, well-nigh in a whisper. # Far away the Rachel-Jane Not defeated by the horns Sings amid a hedge of thorns:-- "Love and life, Eternal youth-- Sweet, sweet, sweet, sweet, Dew and glory, Love and truth, Sweet, sweet, sweet, sweet." # Louder and louder, faster and faster. # WHILE SMOKE-BLACK FREIGHTS ON THE DOUBLE-TRACKED RAILROAD, DRIVEN AS THOUGH BY THE FOUL-FIEND'S OX-GOAD, SCREAMING TO THE WEST COAST, SCREAMING TO THE EAST, CARRY OFF A HARVEST, BRING BACK A FEAST, HARVESTING MACHINERY AND HARNESS FOR THE BEAST. THE HAND-CARS WHIZ, AND RATTLE ON THE RAILS, THE SUNLIGHT FLASHES ON THE TIN DINNER-PAILS. # In a rolling bass, with increasing deliberation. # And then, in an instant, Ye modern men, Behold the procession once again, # With a snapping explosiveness. # Listen to the iron-horns, ripping, racking, Listen to the _wise_-horn, desperate-to-_advise_-horn, Listen to the _fast_-horn, _kill_-horn, _blast_-horn.... # To be sung or read well-nigh in a whisper. # Far away the Rachel-Jane Not defeated by the horns Sings amid a hedge of thorns:-- Love and life, Eternal youth, Sweet, sweet, sweet, sweet, Dew and glory, Love and truth.