Henry van Dyke
Henry van Dyke was born on November 10 , 1852 in Germantown, Pennsylvania in
the United States. He graduated from Princeton University in 1873 and from
Princeton Theological Seminary, 1877 and served as a professor of English
literature at Princeton between 1899 and 1923. In 1908-09 Dr. van Dyke was
an American lecturer at the University of Paris. By appointment of President
Wilson he became Minister to the Netherlands and Luxembourg in 1913. He was
elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters and received many other
honors. Van Dyke was an "ardent foe of the annexation of the Philippines,
[and] told his congregation in 1898, 'If we enter the course of foreign
conquest, the day is not far distant when we must spend in annual preparation
for wars more than the $180,000,000 that we now spend every year in the education
of our children for peace.'"
Among his poems is "Katrina's Sundial", the inspiration for the song, "Time Is", by the group It's a Beautiful Day on their eponymous 1969 debut album. Furthermore, the lyrics of a song -- entitled "Time", sung by Mark Masri -- are mostly inspired by the following quote, written by Henry van Dyke: "Time is too slow for those who wait, too swift for those who fear, too long for those who grieve, too short for those who rejoice, but for those who love -- time is eternity".
