{
 "id": "henry-van-dyke-jr/sea-gulls-of-manhattan",
 "title": "Sea-Gulls of Manhattan",
 "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": 95,
 "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": 40,
  "n_stanzas": 5,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 47,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Children of the elemental mother,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Born upon some lonely island shore",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Where the wrinkled ripples run and whisper,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where the crested billows plunge and roar;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Long-winged, tireless roamers and adventurers,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fearless breasters of the wind and sea,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "In the far-off solitary places",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I have seen you floating wild and free!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Here the high-built cities rise around you;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Here the cliffs that tower east and west,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Honeycombed with human habitations,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Have no hiding for the sea-bird’s nest:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Here the river flows begrimed and troubled;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Here the hurrying, panting vessels fume,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Restless, up and down the watery highway,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "While a thousand chimneys vomit gloom.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Toil and tumult, conflict and confusion,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Clank and clamour of the vast machine",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Human hands have built for human bondage⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yet amid it all you float serene;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Circling, soaring, sailing, swooping lightly",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Down to glean your harvest from the wave;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "In your heritage of air and water,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "You have kept the freedom Nature gave.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Even so the wild-woods of Manhattan",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Saw your wheeling flocks of white and gray;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Even so you fluttered, followed, floated,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Round the Half-Moon creeping up the bay;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Even so your voices creaked and chattered.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Laughing shrilly o’er the tidal rips,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "While your black and beady eyes were glistening",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Round the sullen British prison-ships.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Children of the elemental mother,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fearless floaters ’mid the double blue,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "From the crowded boats that cross the ferries",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Many a longing heart goes out to you.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Though the cities climb and close around us,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Something tells us that our souls are free,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "While the sea-gulls fly above the harbour,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "While the river flows to meet the sea!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}