Henry Van Dyke (Генри Ван Дайк)

Peace

I

IN EXCELSIS

Two dwellings, Peace, are thine.
One is the mountain-height,
Uplifted in the loneliness of light
Beyond the realm of shadows,--fine,
And far, and clear,--where advent of the night
Means only glorious nearness of the stars,
And dawn, unhindered, breaks above the bars
That long the lower world in twilight keep.
Thou sleepest not, and hast no need of sleep,
For all thy cares and fears have dropped away;
The night's fatigue, the fever-fret of day,
Are far below thee; and earth's weary wars,
In vain expense of passion, pass
Before thy sight like visions in a glass,
Or like the wrinkles of the storm that creep
Across the sea and leave no trace
Of trouble on that immemorial face,--
So brief appear the conflicts, and so slight
The wounds men give, the things for which they fight.

Here hangs a fortress on the distant steep,--
A lichen clinging to the rock:
There sails a fleet upon the deep,--
A wandering flock
Of snow-winged gulls: and yonder, in the plain,
A marble palace shines,--a grain
Of mica glittering in the rain.
Beneath thy feet the clouds are rolled
By voiceless winds: and far between
The rolling clouds new shores and peaks are seen,
In shimmering robes of green and gold,
And faint aerial hue
That silent fades into the silent blue.
Thou, from thy mountain-hold,
All day, in tranquil wisdom, looking down
On distant scenes of human toil and strife,
All night, with eyes aware of loftier life,
Uplooking to the sky, where stars are sown,
Dost watch the everlasting fields grow white
Unto the harvest of the sons of light,
And welcome to thy dwelling-place sublime
The few strong souls that dare to climb
The slippery crags and find thee on the height.

II

DE PROFUNDIS

But in the depth thou hast another home,
For hearts less daring, or more frail.
Thou dwellest also in the shadowy vale;
And pilgrim-souls that roam
With weary feet o'er hill and dale,
Bearing the burden and the heat
Of toilful days,
Turn from the dusty ways
To find thee in thy green and still retreat.
Here is no vision wide outspread
Before the lonely and exalted seat
Of all-embracing knowledge. Here, instead,
A little garden, and a sheltered nook,
With outlooks brief and sweet
Across the meadows, and along the brook,--
A little stream that little knows
Of the great sea towards which it gladly flows,--
A little field that bears a little wheat
To make a portion of earth's daily bread.
The vast cloud-armies overhead
Are marshalled, and the wild wind blows
Its trumpet, but thou canst not tell
Whence the storm comes nor where it goes.

Nor dost thou greatly care, since all is well;
Thy daily task is done,
And though a lowly one,
Thou gavest it of thy best,
And art content to rest
In patience till its slow reward is won.
Not far thou lookest, but thy sight is clear;
Not much thou knowest, but thy faith is dear;
For life is love, and love is always near.
Here friendship lights the fire, and every heart,
Sure of itself and sure of all the rest,
Dares to be true, and gladly takes its part
In open converse, bringing forth its best:
Here is Sweet music, melting every chain
Of lassitude and pain:
And here, at last, is sleep, the gift of gifts,
The tender nurse, who lifts
The soul grown weary of the waking world,
And lays it, with its thoughts all furled,
Its fears forgotten, and its passions still,
On the deep bosom of the Eternal Will.

Henry Van Dyke’s other poems:

  1. The Statue of Sherman by St. Gaudens
  2. The Wind of Sorrow
  3. Spring in the South
  4. Sea-Gulls of Manhattan
  5. The Glory of Ships

Poems of other poets with the same name (Стихотворения других поэтов с таким же названием):

  • Rupert Brooke (Руперт Брук) Peace (“Now, God Be Thanked Who Has Matched Us With His Hour”)
  • William Yeats (Уильям Йейтс) Peace (“AH, that Time could touch a form”)
  • George Herbert (Джордж Герберт (Херберт)) Peace (“SWEET Peace, where dost thou dwell? I humbly crave”)
  • Gerard Hopkins (Джерард Хопкинс) Peace (“When will you ever, Peace, wild wooddove, shy wings shut”)
  • Henry Vaughan (Генри Воэн) Peace (“My Soul, there is a country”)
  • Eleanor Farjeon (Элинор Фарджон) Peace (“I am as awful as my brother War”)
  • Robert Anderson (Роберт Андерсон) Peace (“Now, God be prais’d! we’ve peace at last”)
  • Robert Bloomfield (Роберт Блумфилд) Peace (“Halt! ye Legions, sheathe your Steel”)
  • Charles Sorley (Чарльз Сорли) Peace (“There is silence in the evening when the long days cease”) December 1912
  • Gerald Massey (Джеральд Масси) Peace (“Yes, Peace is beautiful, and I do yearn”)
  • Henry Newbolt (Генри Ньюболт) Peace (“No more to watch by Night’s eternal shore”)
  • Sara Teasdale (Сара Тисдейл) Peace (“PEACE flows into me”)




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