Henry Van Dyke

Name: The White Bees
Author: Henry Van Dyke

The White Bees

Summary

“The White Bees”, is a work by Henry Van Dyke. It explores elements such as frore, Aristaeus and laurel.

Quotes from The White Bees (Henry Van Dyke)

Henry Van Dyke, The White Bees

“ III O bend again above thine organ-board,
Thou blind old poet longing for repose!
Thy Master claims thy service not with those
Who only stand and wait for his reward.
He pours the heavenly gift of song restored
Into thy breast, and bids thee nobly close
A noble life, with poetry that flows
In mighty music of the major chord.
Where hast thou learned this deep, majestic
strain,
Surpassing all thy youthful lyric grace,
To sing of Paradise? Ah, not in vain
The griefs that won at Dante's side thy place,
And made thee, Milton, by thy years of pain,
The loftiest poet of the Saxon race! ”

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Source: Gutenberg

Henry Van Dyke, The White Bees

“ For the perfect sweetness of her flower-like face;
Eagerly he followed, while she fled before him,
over mead and mountain,
On through field and forest, in a breathless
race.
But the nymph, in flying, trod upon a serpent;
like a dream she vanished;
Pluto's chariot bore her down among the dead;
Lonely Aristaeus, sadly home returning, found his
garden empty,
All the hives deserted, all the music fled. ”

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Source: Gutenberg

Henry Van Dyke, The White Bees

“ Thy voice of peace grows deeper in our souls.
But thou in youth hast known the breaking stress
Of passion, and hast trod despair's dry ground
Beneath black thoughts that wither and de-
stroy.
Ah, wanderer, led by human tenderness
Home to the heart of Nature, thou hast found
The hidden Fountain of Recovered Joy.
KEATS The melancholy gift Aurora gained
From Jove, that her sad lover should not
see
The face of death, no goddess asked for thee,
My Keats! But when the crimson blood-drop
stained
Thy pillow, thou didst read the fate ordained,—
Brief life, wild love, a flight of poesy! ”

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Source: Gutenberg

Henry Van Dyke, The White Bees

“ We bring the meed of praise too long delayed!
Thy fearless word and faithful work have made
For God's Republic firmer path and place
In this New World: thou hast proclaimed the
grace
And power of Christ in many a forest glade,
Teaching the truth that leaves men unafraid
Of frowning tyranny or death's dark face.
Oh, who can tell how much we owe to thee,
Makemie, and to labour such as thine,
For all that makes America the shrine
Of faith untrammeled and of conscience free?
Stand here, grey stone, and consecrate the sod
Where rests this brave Scotch-Irish man of God! ”

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Source: Gutenberg

Henry Van Dyke, The White Bees

“ SICILY, DECEMBER, 1908 O garden isle, beloved by Sun and Sea,—
Whose bluest billows kiss thy curving bays,
Whose amorous light enfolds thee in warm
rays
That fill with fruit each dark-leaved orange-
tree,—
What hidden hatred hath the Earth for thee?
Behold, again, in these dark, dreadful days,
She trembles with her wrath, and swiftly lays
Thy beauty waste in wreck and agony!
Is Nature, then, a strife of jealous powers,
And man the plaything of unconscious fate? ”

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Source: Gutenberg

Henry Van Dyke, The White Bees

“ Can never make a home.
But every house where Love abides,
And Friendship is a guest,
Is surely home, and home-sweet-home:
For there the heart can rest.
A NOON SONG There are songs for the morning and songs
for the night,
For sunrise and sunset, the stars and the moon;
But who will give praise to the fulness of light,
And sing us a song of the glory of noon?
Oh, the high noon, and the clear noon,
The noon with golden crest;
When the sky burns, and the sun turns
With his face to the way of the west!
How swiftly he rose in the dawn of his strength ”

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Source: Gutenberg

Henry Van Dyke, The White Bees

“ Silent brooder and nurse of lyrical joys and sor-
rows!
Out of thee, yea, surely out of the fertile depth
below thy breast,
Issued in some Strange way, thou lying motion-
less, voiceless,
All these songs of nature, rhythmical, passionate,
yearning,
Coming in music from earth, but not unto earth
returning.
Dust are the blood-red hearts that beat in time
to these measures,
Thou hast taken them back to thyself, secretly,
irresistibly
Drawing the crimson currents of life down, down,
down
Deep into thy bosom again, as a river is lost in
the sand. ”

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Source: Gutenberg

Henry Van Dyke, The White Bees

“ O fairer than an isle of calm after the wild sea
race,
The quiet room adorned with flowers where first
I saw thy face!
Then furl the sail, let fall the oar, forget the paths
of foam!
The Power that made me wander far at last has
brought me home
To thee, dear haven of my heart, and I no more
will roam.
DEPARTURE Oh, why are you shining so bright, big Sun,
And why is the garden so gay? ”

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Source: Gutenberg

Henry Van Dyke, The White Bees

“ They are simple enough to be great, and full of
a friendly dignity.
I love the old white farmhouses nestled in New
England valleys,
Ample and long and low, with elm-trees feather-
ing over them:
Borders of box in the yard, and lilacs, and old-
fashioned flowers,
A fan-light above the door, and little square panes
in the windows,
The wood-shed piled with maple and birch and
hickory ready for winter,
The gambrel-roof with its garret crowded with
household relics,—
All the tokens of prudent thrift and the spirit of
self-reliance. ”

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Source: Gutenberg

Henry Van Dyke, The White Bees

“ THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH I BIRTHDAY VERSES Dear Aldrich, now November's mellow days
Have brought another Festa round to you,
You can't refuse a loving-cup of praise
From friends the fleeting years have bound to
you.
Here come your Marjorie Daw, your dear Bad
Boy,
Prudence, and Judith the Bethulian,
And many more, to wish you birthday joy,
And sunny hours, and sky caerulean!
Your children all, they hurry to your den,
With wreaths of honour they have won for
you,
To merry-make your threescore years and ten
You, old? Why, life has just begun for you! ”

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Source: Gutenberg

Henry Van Dyke, The White Bees

“ "Two things," the wise man said, "fill me
with awe:
The starry heavens and the moral law."
Nay, add another wonder to thy roll,—
The living marvel of the human soul!
Born in the dust and cradled in the dark,
It feels the fire of an immortal spark,
And learns to read, with patient, searching eyes,
The splendid secret of the unconscious skies.
For God thought Light before He spoke the word;
The darkness understood not, though it heard:
But man looks up to where the planets swim,
And thinks God's thoughts of glory after Him.
What knows the star that guides the sailor's way,
Or lights the lover's bower with liquid ray, ”

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Source: Gutenberg

Henry Van Dyke, The White Bees

“ I know that Europe's wonderful, yet something
seems to lack:
The Past is too much with her, and the people
looking back.
But the glory of the Present is to make the
Future free,—
We love our land for what she is and what she
is to be.
Oh, it's home again, and home again, America for
me I
I want a ship that's westward bound to plough the
rotting sea. ”

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Source: Gutenberg

Henry Van Dyke, The White Bees

“ He watched the drift-wood fire of Fancy spread
Bright colours on the pictures, blue and red:
Boy-like he skipped the longer words, and took
His happy way, with searching, dreamful look
Among the deeper things more simply said.
Then, came his turn to write: and still the flame
Of Fancy played through all the tales he told,
And still he won the laurelled poet's fame
With simple words wrought into rhymes of
gold.
Look, here's the face to which this house is
frame,—
A man too wise to let his heart grow old!
(Dedication of the Aldrich Memorial at Portsmouth, June 11, 1908.) ”

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Source: Gutenberg

Henry Van Dyke, The White Bees

“ God reigns above
And man is greatest in his darkest hours:
Walking amid the cities desolate,
The Son of God appears in human love.
Tertius and Henry van Dyke, January, 1909.
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 spark of life I watched
In her face was glowing or fading,—who could
tell?—
And the open window of the room,
With a flare of yellow light,
Was peering out into the gloom,
Like an eye that searched the night.
Oh, what do you see in the dark, little window, and
why do you fear? ”

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Source: Gutenberg

Henry Van Dyke, The White Bees

“ The gladness of Apollo when he sees,
Upon the bosom of the wintry year,
The honey-harvest of his wild white bees,
Forgetfulness and a dream!
III LEGEND Listen, my beloved, while the silver morning,
like a tranquil vision,
Fills the world around us and our hearts with
peace;
Quiet is the close of Aristaeus' legend, happy is
the ending—
Listen while I tell you how he found release. ”

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Source: Gutenberg

Henry Van Dyke, The White Bees

“ A mighty city covering the isle
They call Manhattan, equal in her state
To all the older capitals of earth,—
The gateway city of a golden world,—
A city girt with masts, and crowned with spires,
And swarming with a host of busy men,
While to her open door across the bay
The ships of all the nations flock like doves. ”

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Source: Gutenberg

Henry Van Dyke, The White Bees

“ Thy drifted form on Viareggio's beach?
Fate to thy body gave a fitting grave,
And bade thy soul ride on with fiery plume,
Thy wild song ring in ocean's yearning
speech!
ROBERT BROWNING How blind the toil that burrows like the mole,
In winding graveyard pathways under-
ground,
For Browning's lineage! What if men have
found
Poor footmen or rich merchants on the roll
Of his forbears? Did they beget his soul?
Nay, for he came of ancestry renowned
Through all the world,—the poets laurel-
crowned
With wreaths from which the autumn takes no
toll. ”

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Source: Gutenberg

Henry Van Dyke, The White Bees

“ Thy star went down before its brightness waned.
Yet thou hast won the gift Tithonus missed:
Never to feel the pain of growing old,
Nor lose the blissful sight of beauty's truth,
But with the ardent lips that music kissed
To breathe thy song, and, ere thy heart grew
cold,
Become the Poet of Immortal Youth. ”

[↩︎]

Source: Gutenberg

Henry Van Dyke, The White Bees

“ Among the famous palaces and cities of renown,
To admire the crumbly castles and the statues of
the kings,—
But now I think I've had enough of antiquated
things.
So it's home again, and home again, America for
me I
My heart is turning home again, and there I long to
be,
In the land of youth and freedom beyond the ocean
bars,
Where the air is full of sunlight and the flag is full
of stars.
Oh, London is a man's town, there's power in
the air;
And Paris is a woman's town, with flowers in
her hair;
And it's sweet to dream in Venice, and it's great
to study Rome;
But when it comes to living there is no place like ”

[↩︎]

Source: Gutenberg

Henry Van Dyke, The White Bees

“ LOVE IN A LOOK Let me but feel thy look's embrace,
Transparent, pure, and warm,
And I'll not ask to touch thy face,
Or fold thee with mine arm.
For in thine eyes a girl doth rise,
Arrayed in candid bliss,
And draws me to her with a charm
More close than any kiss.
A loving-cup of golden wine,
Songs of a silver brook,
And fragrant breaths of eglantine,
Are mingled in thy look.
More fair they are than any star,
Thy topaz eyes divine—
And deep within their trysting-nook
Thy spirit blends with mine. ”

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Source: Gutenberg

Henry Van Dyke, The White Bees

“ The gardens are faded, the fields are frore,—
How will they fare in a world so bleak?
Where is the hidden honey they seek?
What is the sweetness they toil to store
In the desolate day, where no blossoms gleam? ”

[↩︎]

Source: Gutenberg

Henry Van Dyke, The White Bees

“ Many a longing heart goes out to you.
Though the cities climb and close around us,
Something tells us that our souls are free,
While the sea-gulls fly above the harbor,
While the river flows to meet the sea!
URBS CORONATA (Song for the City College of New York)
O youngest of the giant brood
Of cities far-renowned;
In wealth and power thou hast passed
Thy rivals at a bound ”

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Source: Gutenberg

Henry Van Dyke, The White Bees

“ Means more than gratitude for glories fled;
For every noble man that she hath bred,
Lives in the bronze and marble that we raise,
Immortalized by art's immortal praise,
To lead our sons as he our fathers led. ”

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Source: Gutenberg

Henry Van Dyke, The White Bees

“ Will push her bowsprit in, and battle through!
And why not ours,—to-morrow,—who can tell?
The lucky chance awaits the fearless heart!
These are the longest days of all the year;
The world is round and God is everywhere,
And while our shallop floats we still can steer.
So point her up, John King, nor'west by north. ”

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Source: Gutenberg

Henry Van Dyke, The White Bees

“ Devout astronomer, most humbly wise,
For lessons brighter than the stars can give,
And inward light that helps us all to live.
The world has brought the laurel-leaves to crown
The star-discoverer's name with high, renown ”

[↩︎]

Source: Gutenberg

Henry Van Dyke, The White Bees

“ You're sure to keep your charm of only-ness.
You do your work with careful, loving touch,—
An artist to the very core of you,—
you know the magic spell of "not-too-much":
We read,—and wish that there was more of
you.
And more there is: for while we love your books
Because their subtle skill is part of you ”

Henry Van Dyke

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Quotes from The White Bees (Henry Van Dyke)

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