The Angel and the Clown

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.”