{
 "id": "henry-van-dyke-jr/god-of-the-open-air",
 "title": "God of the Open Air",
 "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": 26,
 "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": [
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   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/16134",
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   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/9372",
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   "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": 153,
  "n_stanzas": 11,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 74,
  "max_indent": 6
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Thou who hast made thy dwelling fair",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "With flowers below, above with starry lights",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "And set thine altars everywhere⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "On mountain heights,",
    "indent": 5
   },
   {
    "text": "In woodlands dim with many a dream,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "In valleys bright with springs,",
    "indent": 5
   },
   {
    "text": "And on the curving capes of every stream:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thou who hast taken to thyself the wings",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of morning, to abide",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Upon the secret places of the sea,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And on far islands, where the tide",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Visits the beauty of untrodden shores,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Waiting for worshippers to come to thee",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In thy great out-of-doors!",
    "indent": 5
   },
   {
    "text": "To thee I turn, to thee I make my prayer,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "God of the open air.",
    "indent": 5
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Seeking for thee, the heart of man",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Lonely and longing ran,",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "In that first, solitary hour,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When the mysterious power",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "To know and love the wonder of the morn",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Was breathed within him, and his soul was born;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And thou didst meet thy child,",
    "indent": 5
   },
   {
    "text": "Not in some hidden shrine,",
    "indent": 5
   },
   {
    "text": "But in the freedom of the garden wild,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And take his hand in thine⁠—",
    "indent": 5
   },
   {
    "text": "There all day long in Paradise he walked,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And in the cool of evening with thee talked.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Lost, long ago, that garden bright and pure,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Lost, that calm day too perfect to endure,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And lost the child-like love that worshipped and was sure!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For men have dulled their eyes with sin,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And dimmed the light of heaven with doubt,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And built their temple walls to shut thee in,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And framed their iron creeds to shut thee out.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But not for thee the closing of the door,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "O Spirit unconfined!",
    "indent": 5
   },
   {
    "text": "Thy ways are free",
    "indent": 6
   },
   {
    "text": "As is the wandering wind,",
    "indent": 5
   },
   {
    "text": "And thou hast wooed thy children, to restore",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Their fellowship with thee,",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "In peace of soul and simpleness of mind.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Joyful the heart that, when the flood rolled by,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Leaped up to see the rainbow in the sky;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And glad the pilgrim, in the lonely night,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "For whom the hills of Haran, tier on tier,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Built up a secret stairway to the height",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Where stars like angel eyes were shining clear.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "From mountain-peaks, in many a land and age,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Disciples of the Persian seer",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Have hailed the rising sun and worshipped thee;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And wayworn followers of the Indian sage",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Have found the peace of God beneath a spreading tree.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But One, but One⁠—ah, Son most dear,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And perfect image of the Love Unseen⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Walked every day in pastures green,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And all his life the quiet waters by,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Reading their beauty with a tranquil eye.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To him the desert was a place prepared",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For weary hearts to rest;",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "The hillside was a temple blest;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The grassy vale a banquet-room",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Where he could feed and comfort many a guest.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With him the lily shared",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "The vital joy that breathes itself in bloom;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And every bird that sang beside the nest",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Told of the love that broods o’er every living thing.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He watched the shepherd bring",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "His flock at sundown to the welcome fold,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The fisherman at daybreak fling",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "His net across the waters gray and cold,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And all day long the patient reaper swing",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His curving sickle through the harvest-gold.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So through the world the foot-path way he trod,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Breathing the air of heaven in every breath;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And in the evening sacrifice of death",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Beneath the open sky he gave his soul to God.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Him will I trust, and for my Master take;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Him will I follow; and for his dear sake,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "God of the open air,",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "To thee I make my prayer.",
    "indent": 3
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "From the prison of anxious thought that greed has builded,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From the fetters that envy has wrought and pride has gilded,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From the noise of the crowded ways and the fierce confusion,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From the folly that wastes its days in a world of illusion,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "(Ah, but the life is lost that frets and languishes there!)",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I would escape and be free in the joy of the open air.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "By the breadth of the blue that shines in silence o’er me,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By the length of the mountain-lines that stretch before me,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By the height of the cloud that sails, with rest in motion,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Over the plains and the vales to the measureless ocean,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "(Oh, how the sight of the greater things enlarges the eyes!)",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Draw me away from myself to the peace of the hills and skies.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "While the tremulous leafy haze on the woodland is spreading,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the bloom on the meadow betrays where May has been treading;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "While the birds on the branches above, and the brooks flowing under,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Are singing together of love in a world full of wonder,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "(Lo, in the magic of Springtime, dreams are changed into truth!)",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Quicken my heart, and restore the beautiful hopes of youth.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "By the faith that the wild-flowers show when they bloom unbidden,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By the calm of the river’s flow to a goal that is hidden,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By the strength of the tree that clings to its deep foundation,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By the courage of birds’ light wings on the long migration,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "(Wonderful spirit of trust that abides in Nature’s breast!)",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Teach me how to confide, and live my life, and rest.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "For the comforting warmth of the sun that my body embraces,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For the cool of the waters that run through the shadowy places,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For the balm of the breezes that brush my face with their fingers,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For the vesper-hymn of the thrush when the twilight lingers,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For the long breath, the deep breath, the breath of a heart without care⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I will give thanks and adore thee, God of the open air!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "These are the gifts I ask",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "Of thee, Spirit serene:",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "Strength for the daily task,",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "Courage to face the road,",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "Good cheer to help me bear the traveller’s load,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And, for the hours of rest that come between,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "An inward joy in all things heard and seen.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "These are the sins I fain",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "Would have thee take away:",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "Malice, and cold disdain,",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "Hot anger, sullen hate,",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "Scorn of the lowly, envy of the great,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And discontent that casts a shadow gray",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "On all the brightness of the common day.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "These are the things I prize",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "And hold of dearest worth:",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "Light of the sapphire skies,",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "Peace of the silent hills,",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "Shelter of forests, comfort of the grass,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Music of birds, murmur of little rills,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Shadows of cloud that swiftly pass,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And, after showers,",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "The smell of flowers",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "And of the good brown earth⁠—",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "And best of all, along the way, friendship and mirth.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So let me keep",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "These treasures of the humble heart",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "In true possession, owning them by love;",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "And when at last I can no longer move",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Among them freely, but must part",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "From the green fields and from the waters clear,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Let me not creep",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "Into some darkened room and hide",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "From all that makes the world so bright and dear;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But throw the windows wide",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "To welcome in the light;",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "And while I clasp a well-belovèd hand,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Let me once more have sight",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "Of the deep sky and the far-smiling land⁠—",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Then gently fall on sleep,",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "And breathe my body back to Nature’s care,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My spirit out to thee, God of the open air.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}