{
 "id": "henry-van-dyke-jr/christmas-tears",
 "title": "Christmas Tears",
 "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": 74,
 "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": 25,
  "n_stanzas": 5,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 49,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "The day returns by which we date our years:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Day of the joy of giving⁠—that means love;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Day of the joy of living⁠—that means hope;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Day of the Royal Child⁠—and day that brings",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To older hearts the gift of Christmas tears!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Look, how the candles twinkle through the tree,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The children shout when baby claps his hands,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The room is full of laughter and of song!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Your lips are smiling, dearest⁠—tell me why",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Your eyes are brimming full of Christmas tears?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Was it a silent voice that joined the song?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A vanished face that glimmered once again",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Among the happy circle round the tree?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Was it an unseen hand that touched your cheek",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And brought the secret gift of Christmas tears?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Not dark and angry like the winter storm",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of selfish grief⁠—but full of starry gleams,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And soft and still that others may not weep⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Dews of remembered happiness descend",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To bless us with the gift of Christmas tears.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Ah, lose them not, dear heart⁠—life has no pearls",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "More pure than memories of joy love-shared.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "See, while we count them one by one with prayer,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The Heavenly hope that lights the Christmas tree",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Has made a rainbow in our Christmas tears!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}