The Red Flower

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The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Red Flower, by Henry Van Dyke
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Title: The Red Flower
Poems Written in War Time
Author: Henry Van Dyke
Release Date: November, 2005 [EBook #9388]?[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]?[This file was first posted on September 28, 2003]
Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
? START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE RED FLOWER ***
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THE RED FLOWER
POEMS WRITTEN IN WAR TIME
BY?HENRY VAN DYKE?D.O.L. (OXON.)
1919
PREFACE
These are verses that came to me in this dreadful war time amid the cares and labors of a heavy task.
Two of the poems, "A Scrap of Paper" and "Stand Fast," were written in 1914 and bore the signature Civis Americanus--the use of my own name at the time being impossible. Two others, "Lights Out" and "Remarks about Kings," were read for me by Robert Underwood Johnson at the meeting of the American Academy in Boston, November, 1915, at which I was unable to be present.
The rest of the verses were printed after I had resigned my diplomatic post and was free to say what I thought and felt, without reserve.
The "Interludes in Holland" are thoughts of the peaceful things that will abide for all the world after we have won this war against war.
SYLVANORA, October 1, 1917.
CONTENTS
PREMONITION?THE RED FLOWER (JUNE, 1914)
THE TRIAL AS BY FIRE?A SCRAP OF PAPER?STAND FAST?LIGHTS OUT (1915)?REMARKS ABOUT KINGS?WAR-MUSIC?MIGHT AND RIGHT?THE PRICE OF PEACE?STORM-MUSIC
FRANCE AND BELGIUM?THE BELLS OP MALINES (AUGUST 17, 1914)?THE NAME OF FRANCE?JEANNE D'ARC RETURNS (1914-1916)
INTERLUDES IN HOLLAND?THE HEAVENLY HILLS OF HOLLAND?THE PROUD LADY?FLOOD-TIDE OF FLOWERS (IN HOLLAND)
ENTER AMERICA?AMERICAN'S PROSPERITY?THE GLORY OF SHIPS?MARE LIBERUM?"LIBERTY ENLIGHTENING THE WORLD"?THE OXFORD THRUSHES (FEBRUARY, 1917)?HOMEWARD BOUND
PREMONITION
THE RED FLOWER
June 1914
In the pleasant time of Pentecost,?By the little river Kyll,?I followed the angler's winding path?Or waded the stream at will.?And the friendly fertile German land?Lay round me green and still.
But all day long on the eastern bank?Of the river cool and clear,?Where the curving track of the double rails?Was hardly seen though near,?The endless trains of German troops?Went rolling down to Trier.
They packed the windows with bullet heads?And caps of hodden gray;?They laughed and sang and shouted loud?When the trains were brought to a stay;?They waved their hands and sang again?As they went on their iron way.
No shadow fell on the smiling land,?No cloud arose in the sky;?I could hear the river's quiet tune?When the trains had rattled by;?But my heart sank low with a heavy sense?Of trouble,--I knew not why.
Then came I into a certain field?Where the devil's paint-brush spread?'Mid the gray and green of the rolling hills?A flaring splotch of red,?An evil omen, a bloody sign,?And a token of many dead.
I saw in a vision the field-gray horde?Break forth at the devil's hour,?And trample the earth into crimson mud?In the rage of the Will to Power,--?All this I dreamed in the valley of Kyll,?At the sign of the blood-red flower.
A SCRAP OF PAPER
"Will you go to war just for a scrap of paper?"--_Question of the German Chancellor to the British Ambassador, August 3, 1914._
A mocking question! Britain's answer came?Swift as the light and searching as the flame.
"Yes, for a scrap of paper we will fight?Till our last breath, and God defend the right!
"A scrap of paper where a name is set?Is strong as duty's pledge and honor's debt.
"A scrap of paper holds for man and wife?The sacrament of love, the bound of life.
"A scrap of paper may be Holy Writ?With God's eternal word to hallow it.
"A scrap of paper binds us both to stand?Defenders of a neutral neighbor land.
"By God, by faith, by honor, yes! We fight?To keep our name upon that paper white."
September, 1914
STAND FAST
Stand fast, Great Britain!?Together England, Scotland, Ireland stand?One in the faith that makes a mighty land,?True to the bond you gave and will not break?And fearless in the fight for conscience' sake!?Against Giant Robber clad in steel,?With blood of trampled Belgium on his heel,?Striding through France to strike you down at last,
Britain, stand fast!
Stand fast, brave land!?The Huns are thundering