{
 "id": "henry-van-dyke-jr/homeward-bound",
 "title": "Homeward Bound",
 "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": 121,
 "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": 37,
  "n_stanzas": 10,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 37,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Home, for my heart still calls me;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Home, through the danger zone;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Home, whatever befalls me,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I will sail again to my own!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Wolves of the sea are hiding",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Closely along the way,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Under the water biding",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Their moment to rend and slay.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Black is the eagle that brands them,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Black are their hearts as the nights",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Black is the hate that sends them",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To murder but not to fight.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Flower of the German Culture,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Boast of the Kaiser’s Marine,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Choose for your emblem the vulture,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Cowardly, cruel, obscene!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Forth from her sheltered haven",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Our peaceful ship glides slow,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Noiseless in flight as a raven,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Gray as a hoodie crow.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "She doubles and turns in her bearing,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Like a twisting plover she goes;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The way of her westward faring",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Only the captain knows.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "In a lonely bay concealing",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "She lingers for days, and slips",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "At dusk from her covert, stealing",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thro’ channels feared by the ships.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Brave are the men, and steady,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who guide her over the deep⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "British mariners, ready",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To face the sea-wolf’s leap.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Lord of the winds and waters,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Bring our ship to her mark,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Safe from this game of hide-and-seek",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With murderers in the dark!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "S.S. Baltic",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}