These are verses that came to me in this dreadful war time amid the cares and labors of a heavy task.
Two of the poems, "A Scrap of Paper" and "Stand Fast," were written in 1914 and bore the signature Civis Americanus-the use of my own name at the time being impossible. Two others, "Lights Out" and "Remarks about Kings," were read for me by Robert Underwood Johnson at the meeting of the American Academy in Boston, November, 1915, at which I was unable to be present.
The rest of the verses were printed after I had resigned my diplomatic post and was free to say what I thought and felt, without reserve.
The "Interludes in Holland" are thoughts of the peaceful things that will abide for all the world after we have won this war against war.
SYLVANORA, October 1, 1917. - Summary by Henry Van Dyke
