{
 "id": "henry-van-dyke-jr/stars-and-the-soul",
 "title": "Stars and the Soul",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": "(To Charles A. Young, Astronomer)",
 "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": 77,
 "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",
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   "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": 24,
  "n_stanzas": 6,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 51,
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 "site_ready": true,
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "“Two things,” the wise man said, “fill me with awe:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The starry heavens and the moral law.”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nay, add another wonder to thy roll⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The living marvel of the human soul!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Born in the dust and cradled in the dark,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "It feels the fire of an immortal spark,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And learns to read, with patient, searching eyes,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The splendid secret of the unconscious skies.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "For God thought Light before He spoke the word;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The darkness understood not, though it heard:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But man looks up to where the planets swim,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And thinks God’s thoughts of glory after Him.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "What knows the star that guides the sailor’s way,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or lights the lover’s bower with liquid ray,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of toil and passion, danger and distress,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Brave hope, true love, and utter faithfulness?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But human hearts that suffer good and ill,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And hold to virtue with a loyal will,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Adorn the law that rules our mortal strife",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With star-surpassing victories of life.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "So take our thanks, dear reader of the skies,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Devout astronomer, most humbly wise,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For lessons brighter than the stars can give,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And inward light that helps us all to live.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}