{
 "id": "henry-van-dyke-jr/stain-not-the-sky",
 "title": "Stain Not the Sky",
 "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": 30,
  "n_stanzas": 5,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 47,
  "max_indent": 2
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Ye gods of battle, lords of fear,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Who work your iron will as well",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "As once ye did with sword and spear,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "With rifled gun and rending shell⁠—",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Masters of sea and land, forbear",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The fierce invasion of the inviolate air!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "With patient daring man hath wrought",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "A hundred years for power to fly;",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "And will you make his winged thought",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "A hovering horror in the sky,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Where flocks of human eagles sail,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Dropping their bolts of death on hill and dale?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Ah no, the sunset is too pure,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The dawn too fair, the noon too bright",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "For wings of terror to obscure",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Their beauty, and betray the night",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "That keeps for man, above his wars,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The tranquil vision of untroubled stars.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Pass on, pass on, ye lords of fear!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Your footsteps in the sea are red,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "And black on earth your paths appear",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "With ruined homes and heaps of dead.",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Pass on to end your transient reign,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And leave the blue of heaven without a stain.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The wrong ye wrought will fall to dust,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The right ye shielded will abide;",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "The world at last will learn to trust",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "In law to guard, and love to guide;",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "And Peace of God that answers prayer",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Will fall like dew from the inviolate air.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}