Vachel Lindsay here honours the deeds of American eccentric John Chapman (1774-1845), aka Johnny Appleseed, who roamed the countryside establishing nurseries. He was a disciple of the religious visionary Emmanuel Swedenborg.
On the mountain peak, called ‘Going-To-The-Sun,’
I saw gray Johnny Appleseed at prayer
Just as the sunset made the old earth fair,
Then darkness came; in an instant, like great smoke,
The sun fell down as though its great hoops broke
And dark rich apples, poured from the dim flame
Where the sun set, came rolling toward the peak,
A storm of fruit, a mighty cider-reek,
The perfume of the orchards of the world,
From apple-shadows: red and russet domes
That turned to clouds of glory and strange homes
Above the mountain tops for cloud-born souls: –
Reproofs for men who build the world like moles,
Models for men, if they would build the world
As Johnny Appleseed would have it done –
Praying, and reading the books of Swedenborg
On the mountain top called ‘Going-To-The-Sun.’