{
 "id": "henry-van-dyke-jr/lights-out",
 "title": "Lights Out",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": "(1915)",
 "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": 24,
  "n_stanzas": 4,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 53,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "“Lights out” along the land,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Lights out” upon the sea.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The night must put her hiding hand",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "O’er peaceful towns where children sleep,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And peaceful ships that darkly creep",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Across the waves, as if they were not free.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The dragons of the air,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The hell-hounds of the deep,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Lurking and prowling everywhere,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Go forth to seek their helpless prey,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Not knowing whom they maim or slay⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Mad harvesters, who care not what they reap.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Out with the tranquil lights,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Out with the lights that burn",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For love and law and human rights!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Set back the clock a thousand years:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All they have gained now disappears,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the dark ages suddenly return.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Kaiser, who loosed wild death,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And terror in the night,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "God grant you draw no quiet breath,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Until the madness you began",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Is ended, and long-suffering man,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Set free from war lords, cries, “Let there be Light.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}