Excerpt from On the Building of Springfield

by Nicholas Vachel Lindsay, 1879-1931

Known as the "Prairie Troubador"

 

 

Let not our town be large—remembering

  That little Athens was the Muses’ home;

That Oxford rules the heart of London still,

  That Florence gave the Renaissance to Rome.

 

Record it for the grandson of your son—

  A city is not builded in a day:

Our little town cannot complete her soul

  Till countless generations pass away.

 

Now let each child be joined as to a church

  To her perpetual hopes, each man ordained;

Let every street be made a reverent aisle

  Where music grows, and beauty is unchained.

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West High Street and the Saint Francis Xavier Catholic Church, Gettysburg