Produced by Ted Garvin, Tonya Allen and PG Distributed Proofreaders 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