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.
Sweet, sweet, sweet, sweet.
# To be brawle