{
 "id": "henry-van-dyke-jr/spring-in-the-north",
 "title": "Spring in the North",
 "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": 18,
 "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": 81,
  "n_stanzas": 3,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 49,
  "max_indent": 2
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Ah, who will tell me, in these leaden days,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Why the sweet Spring delays,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And where she hides⁠—the dear desire",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of every heart that longs",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "For bloom, and fragrance, and the ruby fire",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of maple-buds along the misty hills,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And that immortal call which fills",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The waiting wood with songs?",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The snow-drops came so long ago,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "It seemed that Spring was near!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But then returned the snow",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "With biting winds, and earth grew sere,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And sullen clouds drooped low",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "To veil the sadness of a hope deferred:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Then rain, rain, rain, incessant rain",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Beat on the window-pane,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Through which I watched the solitary bird",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That braved the tempest, buffeted and tossed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With rumpled feathers down the wind again.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Oh, were the seeds all lost",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "When winter laid the wild flowers in their tomb?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I searched the woods in vain",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "For blue hepaticas, and trilliums white,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And trailing arbutus, the Spring’s delight,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Starring the withered leaves with rosy bloom.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But every night the frost",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "To all my longing spoke a silent nay,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And told me Spring was far away.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Even the robins were too cold to sing,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Except a broken and discouraged note⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Only the tuneful sparrow, on whose throat",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Music has put her triple finger-print,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Lifted his head and sang my heart a hint⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Wait, wait, wait! oh, wait a while for Spring!”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But now, Carina, what divine amends",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For all delay! What sweetness treasured up,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "What wine of joy that blends",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "A hundred flavours in a single cup,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Is poured into this perfect day!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For look, sweet heart, here are the early flowers",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That lingered on their way,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Thronging in haste to kiss the feet of May,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Entangled with the bloom of later hours⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Anemones and cinque-foils, violets blue",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And white, and iris richly gleaming through",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The grasses of the meadow, and a blaze",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of butter-cups and daisies in the field,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Filling the air with praise,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "As if a chime of golden bells had pealed!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The frozen songs within the breast",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Of silent birds that hid in leafless woods,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Melt into rippling floods",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Of gladness unrepressed.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Now oriole and bluebird, thrush and lark,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Warbler and wren and vireo,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Mingle their melody; the living spark",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of Love has touched the fuel of desire,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And every heart leaps up in singing fire.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "It seems as if the land",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Were breathing deep beneath the sun’s caress,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Trembling with tenderness,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "While all the woods expand,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "In shimmering clouds of rose and gold and green,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To veil a joy too sacred to be seen.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Come, put your hand in mine,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "True love, long sought and found at last,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And lead me deep into the Spring divine",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That makes amends for all the wintry past.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "For all the flowers and songs I feared to miss",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Arrive with you;",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "And in the lingering pressure of your kiss",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My dreams come true;",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "And in the promise of your generous eyes",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I read the mystic sign",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Of joy more perfect made",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Because so long delayed,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "And bliss enhanced by rapture of surprise.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ah, think not early love alone is strong;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He loveth best whose heart has learned to wait:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Dear messenger of Spring that tarried long,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "You’re doubly dear because you come so late.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}