Poem of the Week
PotW.org
Founded August 1996
<   PotW #314   >
This Week's Poem

Past Poems...
...by Poet
...by Title and First Line
...by Occasion

Contact about...
...Free Subscription
...Submitting a Poem
...other Questions

The Fine Print...
...Copyright Information
...Page Mission
...Privacy Policy

Links to...
...other Poetry Sites


 

 

       Henry Van Dyke (1852-1933)

          from The Fall of the Leaves

                                  I

    IN warlike pomp, with banners flowing,
        The regiments of autumn stood:
    I saw their gold and scarlet glowing
        From every hillside, every wood.

    Above the sea the clouds were keeping
        Their secret leaguer, gray and still;
    They sent their misty vanguard creeping
        With muffled step from hill to hill.

    All day the sullen armies drifted
        Athwart the sky with slanting rain;
    At sunset for a space they lifted,
        With dusk they settled down again

 

The above is the first of three sections of Van Dyke's 1874 The Fall of the Leaves. The two that follow are, in comparison, disappointing.

A Presbyterian Minister, Henry Van Dyke is perhaps best known for The Story of the Other Wise Man and for the Hymn of Joy ("Joyful, joyful, we adore Thee, ..."). He was also a prolific poet, and the above can be found in:

  • Van Dyke, Henry. The Poems of Henry Van Dyke. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1911.