{
 "id": "henry-van-dyke-jr/nepenthe",
 "title": "Nepenthe",
 "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": 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": [
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   "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": 49,
  "n_stanzas": 4,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 47,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Yes, it was like you to forget,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And cancel in the welcome of your smile",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My deep arrears of debt,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And with the putting forth of both your hands",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To sweep away the bars my folly set",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Between us⁠—bitter thoughts, and harsh demands,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And reckless deeds that seemed untrue",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To love, when all the while",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My heart was aching through and through",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For you, sweet heart, and only you.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Yet, as I turned to come to you again,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I thought there must be many a mile",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of sorrowful reproach to cross,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And many an hour of mutual pain",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To bear, until I could make plain",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That all my pride was but the fear of loss,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And all my doubt the shadow of despair",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To win a heart so innocent and fair;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And even that which looked most ill",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Was but the fever-fret and effort vain",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To dull the thirst which you alone could still.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But as I turned, the desert miles were crossed,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And when I came, the weary hours were sped!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For there you stood beside the open door,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Glad, gracious, smiling as before,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And with bright eyes and tender hands outspread",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Restored me to the Eden I had lost.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Never a word of cold reproof,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "No sharp reproach, no glances that accuse",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The culprit whom they hold aloof⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ah, ’tis not thus that other women use",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The empire they have won!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For there is none like you, beloved⁠—none",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Secure enough to do what you have done.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where did you learn this heavenly art⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "You sweetest and most wise of all that live⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With silent welcome to impart",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Assurance of the royal heart",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That never questions where it would forgive?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "None but a queen could pardon me like this!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My sovereign lady, let me lay",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Within each rosy palm a loyal kiss",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of penitence, then close the fingers up,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thus⁠—thus! Now give the cup",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of full nepenthe in your crimson mouth,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And come⁠—the garden blooms with bliss,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The wind is in the south,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The rose of love with dew is wet⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Dear, it was like you to forget!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}