Poetry of Kansas
 

The Tremulo Stop

She stood before the expectant throng,
    With rosy cheek and resplendent eye,
And raised her voice in exultant song,
    That stirred emotions of ecstasy ;
But as she worked the chromatic scale,
    With a sort of running jump, skip and hop
The melody died with a dismal wail,
    As the singer yanked out the Tremulo Stop.
 
Her voice went soaring, and reached "high C",
    Like a mounting eagle in joyous flight,
But took a sudden slide down to Z,
    Clear out of hearing, almost out of sight
I could have endured the slur and trill,
    As my beaded brow I began to mop,
But down my vertebra went a chill,
    As a cold wave blew from the Tremulo Stop.
 
I heard it thru with an inward moan,
    But wished I was seated upon a cloud,
As it floated out to a distant zone '
    Away from the church and away from the crowd
Where I could hear the bewitching tones
    Of the old tom-tom at the Navajo hop,
Devoid of all the artistic groans,
    The caterwauls of the Tremulo Stop.

__J. M. Cavaness.

Jayhawker Juleps
J. M. Cavaness
(Chanute: Tribune Pub. Co. 1913)
Page 21

 
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