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THE RED FLOWER
THE RED FLOWER HENRY VAN DYKE 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 toward the citadel;
They prate of Culture but their path is Hell;
Their light is darkness and the bloody sword
They wield and worship is their only Lord.
O land where reason stands secure on right
O land where freedom is the source of light
Against the mailed Barbarians' deadly blast
Britain stand fast!
Stand fast dear land!
Thou island mother of a world-wide race
Whose children speak thy tongue and love thy face
Their hearts and hopes are with thee in the strife
Their hands will break the sword that seeks thy life;
Fight on until the Teuton madness cease;
Fight bravely on until the word of peace
Is spoken in the English tongue at last
Britain stand fast!
September 1914.
LIGHTS OUT
(1915)
"Lights out" along the land
"Lights out" upon the sea.
The night must put her hiding hand
O'er peaceful towns where children sleep
And peaceful ships that darkly creep
Across the waves as if they were not free.
The dragons of the air
The hell-hounds of the deep
Lurking and prowling everywhere
Go forth to seek their helpless prey
Not knowing whom they maim or slay--
Mad harvesters who care not what they reap.
Out with the tranquil lights
Out with the lights that burn
For love and law and human rights!
Set back the clock a thousand years:
All they have gained now disappears
And the dark ages suddenly return.
Kaiser who loosed wild death
And terror in the night
God grant you draw no quiet breath
Until the madness you began
Is ended and long-suffering man
Set free from war lords cries "Let there be Light."
October 1915.
Read at the meeting of the American Academy Boston
November 1915.
REMARKS ABOUT KINGS
_God said "I am tired of kings._"--EMERSON.
God said "I am tired of kings"--
But that was a long time ago!
And meantime man said "No
I like their looks in their robes and rings."
So he crowned a few more
And they went on playing the game as before
Fighting and spoiling things.
Man said "I am tired of kings!
Sons of the robber-chiefs of yore
They make me pay for their lust and their war;
I am the puppet they pull the strings;
The blood of my heart is the wine they drink.
I will govern myself for while I think
And see what that brings!"
Then God who made the first remark
Smiled in the dark.
Read at the meeting of the American Academy Boston.
November 1915.
WAR-MUSIC
Break off! Dance no more!
Danger is at the door.
Music is in arms.
To signal war's alarms
Hark a sudden trumpet calling
Over the hill
Why are you calling trumpet calling?
What is your will?
Men men men!
Men who are ready to fight
For their country's life and the right.
Of a liberty-loving land to be
Free free free!
Free from a tyrant's chain
Free from dishonor's stain
Free to guard and maintain
All that her fathers fought for
All that her sons have wrought for
Resolute brave and free!
Call again trumpet call again
Call up the men!
Do you hear the storm of cheers
Mingled with the women's tears
And the tramp tramp tramp of marching feet?
Do you hear the throbbing drum
As the hosts of battle come
Keeping time time time to its beat?
O Music give a song
To make their spirit strong
For the fury of the tempest they must meet.
The hoarse roar
Of the monster guns;
And the sharp bark
Of the lesser guns;
The whine of the shells
The rifles' clatter
Where the bullets patter
The rattle rattle rattle
Of the mitrailleuse in battle
And the yells
Of the men who charge through hells
Where the poison gas descends.
And the bursting shrapnel rends
Limb from limb
In the dim
Chaos and clamor of the strife
Where no man thinks of his life
But only of fighting through
Blindly fighting through through!
'Tis done
At last!
The victory won
The dissonance of warfare past!
O Music mourn the dead
Whose loyal blood was shed
And sound the taps for every hero slain;
Then lend into the song
That made their spirit strong
And tell the world they did not die in vain.
Thank God we can see in the glory of morn
The invincible flag that our fathers defended;
And our hearts can repeat what the heroes have sworn
That war shall not end till the war-lust is ended
Then the bloodthirsty sword shall no longer be lord
Of the nations oppressed by the conqueror's horde
But the banners of freedom shall peacefully wave
O'er the world of the free and the lands of the brave.
May 1916
MIGHT AND RIGHT
If Might made Right life were a wild-beasts' cage;
If Right made Might this were the golden age;
But now until we win the long campaign
Right must gain Might to conquer and to reign.
July 1 1915.
THE PRICE OF PEACE
Peace without Justice is a low estate--
A coward cringing to an iron Fate!
But Peace through Justice is the great ideal--
We'll pay the price of war to make it real.
December 28 1916.
STORM MUSIC
O Music hast thou only heard
The laughing river the singing bird
The murmuring wind in the poplar-trees--
Nothing but Nature's melodies?
Nay thou hearest all her tones
As a Queen must hear!
Sounds of wrath and fear
Mutterings shouts and moans
Mildness tumult and despair--
All she has that shakes the air
With voices fierce and wild!
Thou art a Queen and not a dreaming child--
Put on thy crown and let us hear thee reign
Triumphant in a world of storm and strain!
Echo the long-drawn sighs
Of the mounting wind in the pines;
And the sobs of the mounting waves that rise
In the dark of the troubled deep
To break on the beach in fiery lines.
Echo the far-off roll of thunder
Rumbling loud
And ever louder under
The blue-black curtain of cloud
Where the lightning serpents gleam
Echo the moaning
Of the forest in its sleep
Like a giant groaning
In the torment of a dream.
Now an interval of quiet
For a moment holds the air
In the breathless hush
Of a silent prayer.
Then the sudden rush
Of the rain and the riot
Of the shrieking tearing gale
Breaks loose in the night
With a fusillade of hail!
Hear the forest fight
With its tossing arms that crack and clash
In the thunder's cannonade
While the lightning's forked flash
Brings the old hero-trees to the ground with a crash!
Hear the breakers' deepening roar
Driven like a herd of cattle
In the wild stampede of battle
Trampling trampling trampling to overwhelm the shore.
Is it the end of all?
Will the land crumble and fall?
Nay for a voice replies
Out of the hidden skies
"Thus far O sea shalt thou go
So long O wind shalt thou blow:
Return to your bounds and cease
And let the earth have peace!"
O Music lead the way--
The stormy night is past
Lift up our heads to greet the day
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