For Katrina's Window

Henry Van Dyke

IN HER TOWER OF YADDO

This is the window's message,     
In silence, to the Queen:
“Thou hast a double kingdom     
And I am set between:
Look out and see the glory,     
On hill and plain and sky:
Look in and see the light of love     
That nevermore shall die!”

L'ENVOI

Window in the Queen's high tower,
This shall be thy magic power!
Shut the darkness and the doubt,
Shut the storm and conflict, out;
Wind and hail and snow and rain
Dash against thee all in vain.
Let in nothing from the night,—
Let in every ray of light!

The great house and gardens at Yaddo are now an artists' colony. The house and gardens were built in the 1890s by Spencer Trask and his writer wife, Katrina.