Red Flower: Poems Written in War Time

These poems emerged from the heart of the First World War, written by a man caught between diplomacy and truth. Henry van Dyke, serving as American ambassador to the Netherlands, could not speak freely while representing his nation abroad, so he wrote in secret, signing "Civis Americanus" to verses that ached to be named. When he finally resigned his post in 1917, the restraint lifted, and these poems poured forth with raw feeling. The collection moves between the horrors of trench warfare and the quiet longing for peace. "A Scrap of Paper" and "Stand Fast" confront the broken promises that ignited the conflict. "Lights Out" and "Remarks about Kings" grapple with power and its casualties. Yet the "Interludes in Holland" offer something rarer: stillness. They turn away from battle to remember what the war is fighting to preserve. Van Dyke wrote these verses not as propaganda but as testimony. They capture a man watching civilization tear itself apart, still believing that peace is not naive but necessary. For readers who trust poetry to hold what history cannot, this collection offers wartime's honest grief and its stubborn hope.