{
 "id": "henry-van-dyke-jr/america-for-me",
 "title": "“America for Me”",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Henry van Dyke Jr.",
 "poet_slug": "henry-van-dyke-jr",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "The Poems of Henry Van Dyke",
 "book_slug": "poems",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 103,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1920,
  "venue": "The Poems of Henry Van Dyke (1920)",
  "note": "Taken from the 1920 collected edition. That is the printing this text comes from, not the poem's first appearance: the volume gathers work published from 1897 onward, and which earlier book or magazine printed this poem first has not been established here.",
  "uncertain": true,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/poemsofhenryvand00vandrich"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/henry-van-dyke-jr_poetry",
  "file": "poetry.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/16229",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/16134",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10679",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3525",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/9372",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/29314",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/43094",
   "https://archive.org/details/poemsofhenryvand00vandrich",
   "https://archive.org/details/buildersotherpoe00vandrich",
   "https://archive.org/details/toilingoffelixan00vandiala",
   "https://archive.org/details/musicotherpoems0000henr_c7v6",
   "https://archive.org/details/poemsnowfirstcol00vanduoft",
   "https://archive.org/details/songsoutofdoors0000vand",
   "https://archive.org/details/thyseaisgreatour00vandiala",
   "https://archive.org/details/chosenpoems0000vand"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-20"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 24,
  "n_stanzas": 6,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 64,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "’Tis fine to see the Old World, and travel up and down",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Among the famous palaces and cities of renown,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To admire the crumbly castles and the statues of the kings⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But now I think I’ve had enough of antiquated things.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "So it’s home again, and home again, America for me!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "My heart is turning home again, and there I long to be,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "In the land of youth and freedom beyond the ocean bars,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Where the air is full of sunlight and the flag is full of stars.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Oh, London is a man’s town, there’s power in the air;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And Paris is a woman’s town, with flowers in her hair;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And it’s sweet to dream in Venice, and it’s great to study Rome;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But when it comes to living there is no place like home.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I like the German fir-woods, in green battalions drilled;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I like the gardens of Versailles with flashing fountains filled;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But, oh, to take your hand, my dear, and ramble for a day",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In the friendly western woodland where Nature has her way!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I know that Europe’s wonderful, yet something seems to lack:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The Past is too much with her, and the people looking back.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But the glory of the Present is to make the Future free⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "We love our land for what she is and what she is to be.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Oh, it’s home again, and home again, America for me!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "I want a ship that’s westward bound to plough the rolling sea,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "To the blessèd Land of Room Enough beyond the ocean bars,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Where the air is full of sunlight and the flag is full of stars.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}