{
 "id": "henry-van-dyke-jr/rencontre",
 "title": "“Rencontre”",
 "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": [
   "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": 16,
  "n_stanzas": 4,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 63,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Oh, was I born too soon, my dear, or were you born too late,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That I am going out the door while you come in the gate?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For you the garden blooms galore, the castle is en fête;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "You are the coming guest, my dear⁠—for me the horses wait.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I know the mansion well, my dear, its rooms so rich and wide;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "If you had only come before I might have been your guide,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And hand in hand with you explore the treasures that they hide;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But you have come to stay, my dear, and I prepare to ride.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Then walk with me an hour, my dear, and pluck the reddest rose",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Amid the white and crimson store with which your garden glows⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A single rose⁠—I ask no more of what your love bestows;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "It is enough to give, my dear⁠—a flower to him who goes.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The House of Life is yours, my dear, for many and many a day,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But I must ride the lonely shore, the Road to Far Away:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So bring the stirrup-cup and pour a brimming draught, I pray,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And when you take the road, my dear, I’ll meet you on the way.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}