Their Basic Savagery
Fat black bucks in a wine-barrel room,Barrel-house kings, with feet unstable,Sagged and reeled and pounded on the table,Pounded on the table,Beat an empty barrel with the handle of a broom,Hard as they were able,Boom, boom, BOOM,With a silk umbrella and the handle of a broom,Boomlay, boomlay, boomlay, BOOM.THEN I had religion, THEN I had a vision.I could not turn from their revel in derision.Then along that riverbankA thousand milesTattooed cannibals danced in files;Then I heard the boom of the blood-lust songAnd a thigh-bone beating on a tin-pan gong.And "BLOOD" screamed the whistles and the fifes of the warriors,"BLOOD" screamed the skull-faced, lean witch-doctors,"Whirl ye the deadly voo-doo rattle,Harry the uplands,Steal all the cattle,Rattle-rattle, rattle-rattle,Bing.Boomlay, boomlay, boomlay, BOOM,"A roaring, epic, rag-time tuneFrom the mouth of the CongoTo the Mountains of the Moon.Death is an Elephant,Torch-eyed and horrible,Foam-flanked and terrible.BOOM, steal the pygmies,BOOM, kill the Arabs,BOOM, kill the white men,Listen to the yell of Leopold's ghostBurning in Hell for his hand-maimed host.Hear how the demons chuckle and yellCutting his hands off, down in Hell.Listen to the creepy proclamation,Blown through the lairs of the forest-nation,Blown past the white-ants' hill of clay,Blown past the marsh where the butterflies play:--"Be careful what you do,Or Mumbo-Jumbo, God of the Congo,And all of the otherGods of the Congo,Mumbo-Jumbo will hoo-doo you,Mumbo-Jumbo will hoo-doo you,Mumbo-Jumbo will hoo-doo you."
Words in this poem
- gong n.
- A privy or jakes. Chaucer. Gong farmer, Gong man, a cleaner of privies. [AS. gong, gang, a going, passage, drain. See Gang.]
- harry v. i.
- To make a predatory incursion; to plunder or lay waste.
- bing n.
- A heap or pile; as, a bing of wood. [Cf. Icel. bingr, Sw. binge, G. beige, beuge. Cf. Prov. E. bink bench, and bench coal the uppermost stratum of coal.]
- congo n.
- Black tea, of higher grade (finer leaf and less dusty) than the present bohea. See Tea. [Chin. kung-foo labor.]
- ghost n.
- The spirit; the soul of man. [OE. gast, gost, soul, spirit, AS. gast breath, spirit, soul; akin to OS. g spirit, soul, D. geest, G. geist, and prob. to E. gaze, ghastly.]
- chuckle v. t.
- To call, as a hen her chickens; to cluck. [From lst Chuck.]
- creepy a.
- Crawly; having or producing a sensation like that caused by insects creeping on the skin.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Their Basic Savagery is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Congo, and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #1021; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Vachel Lindsay, Their Basic Savagery, in The Congo and Other Poems (1914), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1021, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/lindsay-congo/their-basic-savagery.html, id L18352.
Form and metre
Their Basic Savagery is 48 lines in a single stanza. 93% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.8 syllables. 23 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 17% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 ABBBABAAACC-DDEE--F-FF--G-G------HHIIJJKKL---L-- roomA · unstableB · tableB · tableB · broomA · ableB · boomA · broomA · boomA · visionC · derisionC · riverbank · milesD · filesD · songE · gongE · warriors · doctors · rattleF · uplands · cattleF · rattleF · bing · boom · tuneG · congo · moonG · elephant · horrible · terrible · pygmies · arabs · men · ghostH · hostH · yellI · hellI · proclamationJ · nationJ · clayK · playK · doL · congo · other · congo · youL · you · you
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Fat black bucks in a wine-barrel room, | 9 | ······/˘· |
| Barrel-house kings, with feet unstable, | 9 | /˘····˘/˘ |
| Sagged and reeled and pounded on the table, | 10 | ····/˘··/˘ |
| Pounded on the table, | 6 | /˘··/˘ |
| Beat an empty barrel with the handle of a broom, | 13 | ··/˘/˘··/˘··· |
| Hard as they were able, | 6 | ····/˘ |
| Boom, boom, BOOM, | 3 | ··· |
| With a silk umbrella and the handle of a broom, | 13 | ···˘/˘··/˘··· |
| Boomlay, boomlay, boomlay, BOOM. | 7 | ······· |
| THEN I had religion, THEN I had a vision. | 12 | ···˘/˘····/˘ |
| I could not turn from their revel in derision. | 12 | ······/˘·˘/˘ |
| Then along that riverbank | 7 | ·˘/·/˘· |
| A thousand miles | 4 | ·/˘· |
| Tattooed cannibals danced in files; | 7 | ˘//˘··· |
| Then I heard the boom of the blood-lust song | 10 | ·········· |
| And a thigh-bone beating on a tin-pan gong. | 11 | ····/˘····· |
| And "BLOOD" screamed the whistles and the fifes of the warriors, | 13 | ····/˘·····/˘ |
| "BLOOD" screamed the skull-faced, lean witch-doctors, | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| "Whirl ye the deadly voo-doo rattle, | 9 | ···/˘··/˘ |
| Harry the uplands, | 5 | /˘·/˘ |
| Steal all the cattle, | 5 | ···/˘ |
| Rattle-rattle, rattle-rattle, | 8 | /˘/˘/˘/˘ |
| Bing. | 1 | · |
| Boomlay, boomlay, boomlay, BOOM," | 7 | ······· |
| A roaring, epic, rag-time tune | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| From the mouth of the Congo | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| To the Mountains of the Moon. | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Death is an Elephant, | 6 | ···/˘˘ |
| Torch-eyed and horrible, | 6 | ···/˘˘ |
| Foam-flanked and terrible. | 6 | ···/˘˘ |
| BOOM, steal the pygmies, | 5 | ···/˘ |
| BOOM, kill the Arabs, | 5 | ···/˘ |
| BOOM, kill the white men, | 5 | ····· |
| Listen to the yell of Leopold's ghost | 10 | /˘····/˘·· |
| Burning in Hell for his hand-maimed host. | 9 | /˘······· |
| Hear how the demons chuckle and yell | 9 | ···/˘/˘·· |
| Cutting his hands off, down in Hell. | 8 | /˘······ |
| Listen to the creepy proclamation, | 10 | /˘··/˘·˘/˘ |
| Blown through the lairs of the forest-nation, | 10 | ······/˘/˘ |
| Blown past the white-ants' hill of clay, | 8 | ········ |
| Blown past the marsh where the butterflies play:-- | 10 | ······/˘·· |
| "Be careful what you do, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Or Mumbo-Jumbo, God of the Congo, | 10 | ·/˘/˘···/˘ |
| And all of the other | 6 | ····/˘ |
| Gods of the Congo, | 5 | ···/˘ |
| Mumbo-Jumbo will hoo-doo you, | 8 | /˘/˘···· |
| Mumbo-Jumbo will hoo-doo you, | 8 | /˘/˘···· |
| Mumbo-Jumbo will hoo-doo you." | 8 | /˘/˘···· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.