A Handy Guide for Beggars, Especially Those of the Poetic Fraternity; Being Sundry Explorations, Made While Afoot and Penniless in Florida, Georgia,

by Vachel Lindsay

Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.

234 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2007

About the author

Vachel Lindsay was an American poet responsible for pioneering modern singing poetry. His most famous work is "The Congo" which clearly exhibits his focus on sound in his poetry, using onomotopeia to imitate the pounding drums and chants of Congo's indigenous people.

Reviews

[Ian Russell]

The title caught my eye and aroused my curiosity. It came by way of a tweet from Project Gutenberg. Most of the time PG’s notifications for ebook titles appear oddly idiosyncratic, off the wall and niche; “synthetic resins and their raw materials”, anyone?

However, “A Handy Guide for Beggars, Especially Those of the Poetic Fraternity; Being Sundry Explorations Being Made While Afoot and Penniless in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, These Stories Convey and Illustrate”, to give it its full title, was poetry to my ears (and eyes).

I’ve long had an interest in the stories of tramps, hobos and journeymen but I hadn’t known about Nicholas Vachel Lindsay. Apparently, he wasn’t a poor young man as might be assumed from the title. He was an educated one, and a poet; known as one of the first “singing poets”, he would offer to recite a poem in a peculiar chanting style in exchange for a night’s bed and a meal. It’s extraordinary that folk, often working-class and poor, would agree to this exchange but this is the beauty in the genre for me.

Incidentally, I found on youtube, a recording of Vachel Lindsay chanting his poem “Congo” and it needs to be heard to be believed. (Actually, for those familiar with the late comedian, Spike Milligan, it did have a ring of his style about it.)

It was sad to find out elsewhere that he suffered from chronic epilepsy and depression and ended his life by his own hand.

So, this PG ebook is free, it’s quite short and a wonderfully curious gem. He writes prose in a style you’d accept from someone who chooses to chant poetry. It’s quirky but fun, and he comes out with turns of phrase which convey wit and humour, sometimes subtly so. In between the States he passes through, each forming a part in the book, there’s a poem of his presented separately. Without hearing the chant, these seem ordinary enough, and one or two I found quite good (I’m not a poet critic).

I found this read unusual, not run of the mill; a nice change and I enjoyed it simply for that. Thank you Project Gutenberg! At least three and a half stars, I think.