The Red Flower: Poems Written in War Time

By Henry Van Dyke

This beautifully written collection of poems is the brainchild of a diplomat under President Woodrow Wilson, Henry van Dyke. His experiences during World War I are a major theme in this work, from the fall of the monarchy in “Remarks About Kings” to a four-sentence stanza about “The Price of Peace”.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sharp Ink
• Release date: Jun 15, 2022
• ISBN: 9788028207229

Henry Van Dyke

Henry Van Dyke (1928–2011) was born in Allegan, Michigan, and grew up in Montgomery, Alabama, where his parents were professors at Alabama State College. He served in the Army in occupied Germany, playing flute in the 427th Marching Band. There he abandoned his early ambition to become a concert pianist and began to write. In 1958, after attending the University of Michigan on the G.I. Bill and living in Ann Arbor, he moved to New York, where he spent the rest of his life. Henry taught creative writing part-time at Kent State University from 1969 until his retirement in 1993, and was the author of four novels, including Blood of Strawberries, a sequel to Ladies of the Rachmaninoff Eyes.

Book preview

Henry Van Dyke

The Red Flower: Poems Written in War Time

Sharp Ink Publishing

2022

Contact: [e-mail]

ISBN 978-80-282-0722-9

Table of Contents

PREFACE

PREMONITION

THE RED FLOWER

A SCRAP OF PAPER

STAND FAST

LIGHTS OUT

REMARKS ABOUT KINGS

WAR-MUSIC

MIGHT AND RIGHT

THE PRICE OF PEACE

STORM MUSIC

FRANCE AND BELGIUM

THE BELLS OF MALINES

THE NAME OF FRANCE

JEANNE D'ARC RETURNS

INTERLUDES IN HOLLAND

THE HEAVENLY HILLS OF HOLLAND

THE PROUD LADY

FLOOD-TIDE OF FLOWERS

ENTER AMERICA

AMERICA'S PROSPERITY

THE GLORY OF SHIPS

MARE LIBERUM

LIBERTY ENLIGHTENING THE WORLD

THE OXFORD THRUSHES

HOMEWARD BOUND

PREFACE

Table of Contents

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,