{
 "id": "henry-van-dyke-jr/milton",
 "title": "Milton",
 "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": 132,
 "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": 42,
  "n_stanzas": 6,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 51,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Lover of beauty, walking on the height",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of pure philosophy and tranquil song;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Born to behold the visions that belong",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "To those who dwell in melody and light;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Milton, thou spirit delicate and bright!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "What drew thee down to join the Roundhead throng",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Of iron-sided warriors, rude and strong,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Fighting for freedom in a world half night?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Lover of Liberty at heart wast thou,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Above all beauty bright, all music clear:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "To thee she bared her bosom and her brow,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Breathing her virgin promise in thine ear,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And bound thee to her with a double vow⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Exquisite Puritan, grave Cavalier!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The cause, the cause for which thy soul resigned",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Her singing robes to battle on the plain,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Was won, O poet, and was lost again;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And lost the labour of thy lonely mind",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On weary tasks of prose. What wilt thou find",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To comfort thee for all the toil and pain?",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "What solace, now thy sacrifice is vain",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And thou art left forsaken, poor, and blind?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Like organ-music comes the deep reply:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“The cause of truth looks lost, but shall be won.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "For God hath given to mine inward eye",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Vision of England soaring to the sun.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And granted me great peace before I die,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In thoughts of lowly duty bravely done.”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "O bend again above thine organ-board,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thou blind old poet longing for repose!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Thy Master claims thy service not with those",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Who only stand and wait for His reward;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He pours the heavenly gift of song restored",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Into thy breast, and bids thee nobly close",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "A noble life, with poetry that flows",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "In mighty music of the major chord.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Where hast thou learned this deep, majestic strain,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Surpassing all thy youthful lyric grace,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "To sing of Paradise? Ah, not in vain",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The griefs that won at Dante’s side thy place,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And made thee, Milton, by thy years of pain,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The loftiest poet of the English race!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}