Read The Angel and the Clown of General William Booth enters into Heaven and other Poems, free online book, by Vachel Lindsay, on ReadCentral.com.

  I saw wild domes and bowers
  And smoking incense towers
  And mad exotic flowers
  In Illinois. 
  Where ragged ditches ran
  Now springs of Heaven began
  Celestial drink for man
  In Illinois.

  There stood beside the town
  Beneath its incense-crown
  An angel and a clown
  In Illinois. 
  He was as Clowns are: 
  She was snow and star
  With eyes that looked afar
  In Illinois.

  I asked, “How came this place
  Of antique Asian grace
  Amid our callow race
  In Illinois?”
  Said Clown and Angel fair: 
  “By laughter and by prayer,
  By casting off all care
  In Illinois.”

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