Explore "Peace (Odes)" by Henry Van Dyke on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
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.