{
 "id": "henry-van-dyke-jr/mercy-for-armenia",
 "title": "Mercy for Armenia",
 "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": 98,
 "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": 2,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 51,
  "max_indent": 2
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Stand back, ye messengers of mercy! Stand",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Far off, for I will save my troubled folk",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "In my own way. So the false Sultan spoke;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And Europe, hearkening to his base command,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Stood still to see him heal his wounded land.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Through blinding snows of winter and through smoke",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Of burning towns, she saw him deal the stroke",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Of cruel mercy that his hate had planned.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Unto the prisoners and the sick he gave",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "New tortures, horrible, without a name;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Unto the thirsty, blood to drink; a sword",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Unto the hungry; with a robe of shame",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "He clad the naked, making life abhorred;",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "He saved by slaughter, and denied a grave.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But thou, my country, though no fault be thine",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For that red horror far across the sea;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Though not a tortured wretch can point to thee,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And curse thee for the selfishness supine",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of those great Powers that cowardly combine",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To shield the Turk in his iniquity;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Yet, since thy hand is innocent and free,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Arise, and show the world the way divine!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thou canst not break the oppressor’s iron rod,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But thou canst help and comfort the oppressed;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Thou canst not loose the captive’s heavy chain,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "But thou canst bind his wounds and soothe his pain.",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Armenia calls thee, Sovereign of the West,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "To play the Good Samaritan for God.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}