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The Red Flower

Henry Van Dyke (1852–1933) · 1925

iambic tetrameter · 36 lines · from The Poems of Henry Van Dyke

In the pleasant time of Pentecost,By the little river Kyll,I followed the angler's winding pathOr waded the stream at will,And the friendly fertile German landLay round me green and still.

But all day long on the eastern bankOf the river cool and clear,Where the curving track of the double railsWas hardly seen though near,The endless trains of German troopsWent rolling down to Trier.

They packed the windows with bullet headsAnd caps of hodden gray;They laughed and sang and shouted loudWhen the trains were brought to a stay;They waved their hands and sang againAs 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 tuneWhen the trains had rattled by;But my heart sank low with a heavy senseOf trouble,--I knew not why.

Then came I into a certain fieldWhere the devil's paint-brush spread'Mid the gray and green of the rolling hillsA flaring splotch of red,--An evil omen, a bloody sign,And a token of many dead.

I saw in a vision the field-gray hordeBreak forth at the devil's hour,And trample the earth into crimson mudIn the rage of the Will to Power,--All this I dreamed in the valley of Kyll,At the sign of the blood-red flower.

Words in this poem

went n.: Course; way; path; journey; direction.
trier n.: One who tries; one who makes experiments; one who examines anything by a test or standard. Boyle. [From Try.]
splotch n.: A spot; a stain; a daub. R. Browning. [Cf. Splash.]
horde n.: A wandering troop or gang; especially, a clan or tribe of a nomadic people migrating from place to place for the sake of pasturage, plunder, etc.; a predatory multitude. Thomson. [F. horde (cf. G. horde), fr. Turk. ord, ordi, camp; of Tartar origin.]

Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.

About this text

The Red Flower is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poems of Henry Van Dyke, Project Gutenberg ebook #16229; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.

Cite as: Henry Van Dyke, The Red Flower, in The Poems of Henry Van Dyke (1925), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #16229, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/van-dyke-poems/the-red-flower.html, id L22925.

Form and metre

The Red Flower is 36 lines in 6 stanzas of 6 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%).

See other poems in iambic tetrameter.

Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.

Rhyme words, stanza by stanza

The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.

1 ---A-A pentecost · kyll · path · will^A · land · still^A
2 -A-A-- bank · clear^A · rails · near^A · troops · trier
3 -A-A-A heads · gray^A · loud · stay^A · again · way^A
4 -A-A-A land · sky^A · tune · by^A · sense · why^A
5 -A-A-A field · spread^A · hills · red^A · sign · dead^A
6 -A-A-A horde · hour^A · mud · power^A · kyll · flower^A

Scansion, line by line

Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic tetrameter. How this is done.

Line	Syl.	Stress
In the pleasant time of Pentecost,	9	··/˘··/˘·
By the little river Kyll,	7	··/˘/˘·
I followed the angler's winding path	10	·/˘˘·/˘/˘·
Or waded the stream at will,	7	·/˘····
And the friendly fertile German land	9	··/˘/˘/˘·
Lay round me green and still.	6	······
But all day long on the eastern bank	9	······/˘·
Of the river cool and clear,	7	··/˘···
Where the curving track of the double rails	10	··/˘···/˘·
Was hardly seen though near,	6	·/˘···
The endless trains of German troops	8	·/˘··/˘·
Went rolling down to Trier.	7	·/˘··/˘
They packed the windows with bullet heads	10	··˘·/˘·/˘·
And caps of hodden gray;	6	······
They laughed and sang and shouted loud	9	··˘···/˘·
When the trains were brought to a stay;	8	········
They waved their hands and sang again	9	··˘····˘/
As they went on their iron way.	8	·····/˘·
No shadow fell on the smiling land,	9	·/····/˘·
No cloud arose in the sky;	7	··˘/···
I could hear the river's quiet tune	9	····/˘/˘·
When the trains had rattled by;	7	····/˘·
But my heart sank low with a heavy sense	10	·······/˘·
Of trouble,--I knew not why.	7	·/˘····
Then came I into a certain field	9	······/˘·
Where the devil's paint-brush spread	7	··/˘···
'Mid the gray and green of the rolling hills	10	·······/˘·
A flaring splotch of red,--	6	·/˘···
An evil omen, a bloody sign,	9	·/˘/˘·/˘·
And a token of many dead.	8	··/˘·/˘·
I saw in a vision the field-gray horde	10	····/˘····
Break forth at the devil's hour,	8	····/˘/˘
And trample the earth into crimson mud	10	·/˘····/˘·
In the rage of the Will to Power,--	9	·······/˘
All this I dreamed in the valley of Kyll,	10	······/˘··
At the sign of the blood-red flower.	9	·······/˘

The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.

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