{
 "id": "henry-van-dyke-jr/fire-fly-city",
 "title": "Fire-Fly City",
 "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": 20,
  "n_stanzas": 5,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 77,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Like a long arrow through the dark the train is darting,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Bearing me far away, after a perfect day of love’s delight:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Wakeful with all the sad-sweet memories of parting,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I lift the narrow window-shade and look out on the night.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Lonely the land unknown, and like a river flowing,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Forest and field and hill are gliding backward still athwart my dream;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Till in that country strange, and ever stranger growing,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A magic city full of lights begins to glow and gleam.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Wide through the landscape dim the lamps are lit in millions;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Long avenues unfold clear-shining lines of gold across the green;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Clusters and rings of light, and luminous pavilions⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Oh, who will tell the city’s name, and what these wonders mean?",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Why do they beckon me, and what have they to show me?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Crowds in the blazing street, mirth where the feasters meet, kisses and wine:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Many to laugh with me, but never one to know me:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A cityful of stranger-hearts and none to beat with mine!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Look how the glittering lines are wavering and lifting⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Softly the breeze of night scatters the vision bright: and, passing fair,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Over the meadow-grass and through the forest drifting,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The Fire-Fly City of the Dark is lost in empty air!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}