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Van Dyke, Henry, 1852-1933

"The Poems of Henry Van Dyke"


Yet clouds and birds and every starry ray
Will draw our heart to where your spirits glow
In the blue Heaven.
For the American Aviators who died in the war.
March, 1919.

A SHRINE IN THE PANTHEON
FOR THE UNNAMED SOLDIERS WHO DIED IN FRANCE

Universal approval has been accorded the proposal made in the
French Chamber that the ashes of an unnamed French soldier,
fallen for his country, shall be removed with solemn ceremony to
the Pantheon. In this way it is intended to honor by a symbolic
ceremony the memory of all who lie in unmarked graves.

Here the great heart of France,
Victor in noble strife,
Doth consecrate a Poilu's tomb
To those who saved her life!
Brave son without a name,
Your country calls you home,
To rest among her heirs of fame,
Beneath the Pantheon's dome!
Now from the height of Heaven,
The souls of heroes look;
Their names, ungraven on this stone,
Are written in God's book.
Women of France, who mourn
Your dead in unmarked ground,
Come hither! Here the man you loved
In the heart of France is found!


IN PRAISE OF POETS

MOTHER EARTH

Mother of all the high-strung poets and singers departed,
Mother of all the grass that weaves over their graves the glory of the
field,
Mother of all the manifold forms of life, deep-bosomed, patient,
impassive,
Silent brooder and nurse of lyrical joys and sorrows!
Out of thee, yea, surely out of the fertile depth below thy breast,
Issued in some strange way, thou lying motionless, voiceless,
All these songs of nature, rhythmical, passionate, yearning.


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