Poems List

Explore poems from our collection

Henry Van Dyke
Henry Van Dyke

Victor Hugo

Victor Hugo

Heart of France for a hundred years,
Passionate, sensitive, proud, and strong,
Quick to throb with her hopes and fears,
Fierc…

364
Henry Van Dyke
Henry Van Dyke

Without Disguise

Without Disguise

If I have erred in showing all my heart,
And lost your favour by a lack of pride;
If standing like a beggar at your side

336
Henry Van Dyke
Henry Van Dyke

Undine

Undine


'T was far away and long ago,
When I was but a dreaming boy,
This fairy tale of love and woe
Entranced my heart with tearf…

335
Henry Van Dyke
Henry Van Dyke

Twilight in the Alps

Twilight in the Alps

I love the hour that comes, with dusky hair
And dewy feet, along the Alpine dells
To lead the cattle forth. A thousand bells…

304
Henry Van Dyke
Henry Van Dyke

Thomas Bailey Aldrich

Thomas Bailey Aldrich

I

BIRTHDAY VERSES

Dear Aldrich, now November's mellow days
Have brought another Festa round to you,…

286
Henry Van Dyke
Henry Van Dyke

To James Whitcomb Riley

To James Whitcomb Riley

On his "Book of Joyous Children"

Yours is a garden of old-fashioned flowers;
Joyous children delight to play ther…

285
Henry Van Dyke
Henry Van Dyke

The Window

The Window

All night long, by a distant bell,
The passing hours were notched
On the dark, while her breathing rose and fell,
And the spar…

313
Henry Van Dyke
Henry Van Dyke

The White Bees

The White Bees

I

LEGEND

Long ago Apollo called to Aristæus,
youngest of the shepherds,
Saying, "I will make you k…

323
Henry Van Dyke
Henry Van Dyke

The Vain King

The Vain King

In robes of Tyrian blue the King was drest,
A jewelled collar shone upon his breast,
A giant ruby glittered in his crown -----

409
Henry Van Dyke
Henry Van Dyke

The Statue of Sherman by St. Gaudens

The Statue of Sherman by St. Gaudens

This is the soldier brave enough to tell
The glory-dazzled world that `war is hell':
Lover of peace, he look…

183
Henry Van Dyke
Henry Van Dyke

The Proud Lady

The Proud Lady

When Stiivoren town was in its prime
And queened the Zuyder Zee,
Its ships went out to every clime
With costly merchantry.…

318
Henry Van Dyke
Henry Van Dyke

The Oxford Thrushes

The Oxford Thrushes

FEBRUARY, 1917

I never thought again to hear
The Oxford thrushes singing clear,
Amid the February rain,

315
Henry Van Dyke
Henry Van Dyke

The Mocking-Bird

The Mocking-Bird

In mirth he mocks the other birds at noon,
Catching the lilt of every easy tune;
But when the day departs he sings of love,--

252
Henry Van Dyke
Henry Van Dyke

The Hermit Thrush

The Hermit Thrush

O wonderful! How liquid clear
The molten gold of that ethereal tone,
Floating and falling through the wood alone,
A her…

316
Henry Van Dyke
Henry Van Dyke

The Glory of Ships

The Glory of Ships

The glory of ships is an old, old song,
since the days when the sea-rovers ran
In their open boats through the roaring surf, <…

360
Henry Van Dyke
Henry Van Dyke

The Foolish Fir-Tree

The Foolish Fir-Tree

A tale that the poet Rückert told
To German children, in days of old;
Disguised in a random, rollicking rhyme
Like …

312
Henry Van Dyke
Henry Van Dyke

The Ancestral Dwelling

The Ancestral Dwelling

Dear to my heart are the ancestral dwellings of America,
Dearer than if they were haunted by ghosts of royal splendour;
Th…

303
Henry Van Dyke
Henry Van Dyke

The Black Birds

The Black Birds

I

Once, only once, I saw it clear, --
That Eden every human heart has dreamed
A hundred times, but always far away…

324
Henry Van Dyke
Henry Van Dyke

Spring in the South

Spring in the South

Now in the oak the sap of life is welling,
Tho' to the bough the rusty leafage clings;
Now on the elm the misty buds are swel…

309
Henry Van Dyke
Henry Van Dyke

Stars and the Soul

Stars and the Soul

To Charles A. Young, Astronomer

"Two things," the wise man said, "fill me with awe:
The starry heavens and the moral…

287
Henry Van Dyke
Henry Van Dyke

Robert Browning

Robert Browning

How blind the toil that burrows like the mole,
In winding graveyard pathways underground,
For Browning's lineage! What if men hav…

327
Henry Van Dyke
Henry Van Dyke

Shelley

Shelley


Knight-errant of the Never-ending Quest,
And Minstrel of the Unfulfilled Desire;
For ever tuning thy frail earthly lyre
T…

226
Henry Van Dyke
Henry Van Dyke

Peace

Peace


I

IN EXCELSIS

Two dwellings, Peace, are thine.
One is the mountain-height,
Uplifted in the loneline…

368
Henry Van Dyke
Henry Van Dyke

Reliance

Reliance


Not to the swift, the race:
Not to the strong, the fight:
Not to the righteous, perfect grace:
Not to the wise, the ligh…

501