{
 "id": "henry-van-dyke-jr/dulciora",
 "title": "Dulciora",
 "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": null,
 "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": 28,
  "n_stanzas": 4,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 51,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Long, long ago I heard a little song,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "(Ah, was it long ago, or yesterday?)",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "So lowly, slowly wound the tune along,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That far into my heart it found the way:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "A melody consoling and endearing;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And now, in silent hours, I’m often hearing",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The small, sweet song that does not die away.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Long, long ago I saw a little flower⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "(Ah, was it long ago, or yesterday?)",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "So fair of face and fragrant for an hour,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That something dear to me it seemed to say⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "A wordless joy that blossomed into being;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And now, in winter days, I’m often seeing",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The friendly flower that does not fade away.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Long, long ago we had a little child⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "(Ah, was it long ago, or yesterday?)",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Into his mother’s eyes and mine he smiled",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Unconscious love; warm in our arms he lay.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "An angel called! Dear heart, we could not hold him;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yet secretly your arms and mine infold him⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Our little child who does not go away.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Long, long ago? Ah, memory, make it clear⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "(It was not long ago, but yesterday.)",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "So little and so helpless and so dear⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Let not the song be lost, the flower decay!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "His voice, his waking eyes, his gentle sleeping:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The smallest things are safest in thy keeping⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sweet memory, keep our child with us alway.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}