Explore "Jeanne D'Arc Returns (the Red Flower and Golden Stars)" by Henry Van Dyke on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
What hast thou done, O womanhood of France, / Mother and daughter, sister, sweetheart, wife, / What hast thou done, amid this fateful strife, / To prove the pride of thine inheritance / In this fair land of freedom and romance?
I hear thy voice with tears and courage rife, -- / Smiling against the swords that seek thy life, -- / Make answer in a noble utterance: / "I give France all I have, and all she asks.
Would it were more! Ah, let her ask and take: / My hands to nurse her wounded, do her tasks, -- / My feet to run her errands through the dark, -- / My heart to bleed in triumph for her sake, -- / And all my soul to follow thee, Jeanne d'Arc!"
April 16, 1916.
[2] This sonnet belongs with the poem on page 309, / "Come Back Again, Jeanne D'Arc. "