{
 "id": "henry-van-dyke-jr/the-ancestral-dwellings",
 "title": "The Ancestral Dwellings",
 "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": 93,
 "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",
   "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": 36,
  "n_stanzas": 6,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 83,
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Dear to my heart are the ancestral dwellings of America,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Dearer than if they were haunted by ghosts of royal splendour;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They are simple enough to be great in their friendly dignity⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Homes that were built by the brave beginners of a nation.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I love the old white farmhouses nestled in New England valleys,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ample and long and low, with elm-trees feathering over them:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Borders of box in the yard, and lilacs, and old-fashioned roses,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A fan-light above the door, and little square panes in the windows,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The wood-shed piled with maple and birch and hickory ready for winter,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The gambrel-roof with its garret crowded with household relics⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All the tokens of prudent thrift and the spirit of self-reliance.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I love the weather-beaten, shingled houses that front the ocean;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They seem to grow out of the rocks, there is something indomitable about them:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Their backs are bowed, and their sides are covered with lichens;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Soft in their colour as gray pearls, they are full of a patient courage.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Facing the briny wind on a lonely shore they stand undaunted,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "While the thin blue pennant of smoke from the square-built chimney",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Tells of a haven for man, with room for a hearth and a cradle.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I love the stately southern mansions with their tall white columns,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They look through avenues of trees, over fields where the cotton is growing;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I can see the flutter of white frocks along their shady porches,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Music and laughter float from the windows, the yards are full of hounds and horses.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Long since the riders have ridden away, yet the houses have not forgotten,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They are proud of their name and place, and their doors are always open,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For the thing they remember best is the pride of their ancient hospitality.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "In the towns I love the discreet and tranquil Quaker dwellings,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With their demure brick faces and immaculate marble doorsteps;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the gabled houses of the Dutch, with their high stoops and iron railings,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "(I can see their little brass knobs shining in the morning sunlight);",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the solid self-contained houses of the descendants of the Puritans,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Frowning on the street with their narrow doors and dormer-windows;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the triple-galleried, many-pillared mansions of Charleston,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Standing open sideways in their gardens of roses and magnolias.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Yes, they are all dear to my heart, and in my eyes they are beautiful;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For under their roofs were nourished the thoughts that have made the nation;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The glory and strength of America come from her ancestral dwellings.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}