{
 "id": "henry-van-dyke-jr/the-builders",
 "title": "The Builders",
 "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": 104,
 "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",
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   "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",
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  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-20"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 319,
  "n_stanzas": 18,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 58,
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Into the dust of the making of man",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Spirit was breathed when his life began,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Lifting him up from his low estate,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With masterful passion, the wish to create.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Out of the dust of his making, man",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fashioned his works as the ages ran;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fortress, and palace, and temple, and tower,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Filling the world with the proof of his power.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Over the dust that awaits him, man,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Building the walls that his pride doth plan,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Dreams they will stand in the light of the sun",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Bearing his name till Time is done.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The monuments of mortals",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Are as the glory of the grass;",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Through Time’s dim portals",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "A voiceless, viewless wind doth pass,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "The blossoms fall before it in a day,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The forest monarchs year by year decay,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And man’s great buildings slowly fade away.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "One after one,",
    "indent": 5
   },
   {
    "text": "They pay to that dumb breath",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "The tribute of their death,",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "And are undone.",
    "indent": 5
   },
   {
    "text": "The towers incline to dust,",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "The massive girders rust,",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "The domes dissolve in air,",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "The pillars that upbear",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "The lofty arches crumble, stone by stone,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "While man the builder looks about him in despair,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For all his works of pride and power are overthrown.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "A Voice came from the sky:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Set thy desires more high.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thy buildings fade away",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Because thou buildest clay.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Now make the fabric sure",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With stones that will endure!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Hewn from the spiritual rock,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The immortal towers of the soul",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "At Death’s dissolving touch shall mock,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And stand secure while æons roll.”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Well did the wise in heart rejoice",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "To hear the summons of that Voice,",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "And patiently begin",
    "indent": 6
   },
   {
    "text": "The builder’s work within,",
    "indent": 6
   },
   {
    "text": "Houses not made with hands,",
    "indent": 6
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor founded on the sands.",
    "indent": 6
   },
   {
    "text": "And thou, Reverèd Mother, at whose call",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "We come to keep thy joyous festival,",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "And celebrate thy labours on the walls of Truth",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Through sevenscore years and ten of thine eternal youth⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A master builder thou,",
    "indent": 6
   },
   {
    "text": "And on thy shining brow,",
    "indent": 6
   },
   {
    "text": "Like Cybele, in fadeless light dost wear",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "A diadem of turrets strong and fair.",
    "indent": 4
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I see thee standing in a lonely land,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But late and hardly won from solitude,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Unpopulous and rude⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "On that far western shore I see thee stand,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Like some young goddess from a brighter strand,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "While in thine eyes a radiant thought is born,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Enkindling all thy beauty like the morn.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sea-like the forest rolled, in waves of green,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And few the lights that glimmered, leagues between.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "High in the north, for fourscore years alone",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fair Harvard’s earliest beacon-tower had shone",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When Yale was lighted, and an answering ray",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Flashed from the meadows by New Haven Bay.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But deeper spread the forest, and more dark,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where first Neshaminy received the spark",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of sacred learning to a woodland camp,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And Old Log College glowed with Tennant’s lamp.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thine, Alma Mater, was the larger sight,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That saw the future of that trembling light,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And thine the courage, thine the stronger will,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That built its loftier home on Princeton Hill.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“New light!” men cried, and murmured that it came",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From an unsanctioned source with lawless flame;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "It shone too free, for still the church and school",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Must only shine according to their rule.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But Princeton answered, in her nobler mood,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“God made the light, and all the light is good.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "There is no war between the old and new;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The conflict lies between the false and true.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The stars, that high in heaven their courses run,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In glory differ, but their light is one.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The beacons, gleaming o’er the sea of life,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Are rivals but in radiance, not in strife.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Shine on, ye sister-towers, across the night!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I too will build a lasting house of light.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Brave was that word of faith and bravely was it kept:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With never-wearying zeal that faltered not, nor slept,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Our Alma Mater toiled, and while she firmly laid",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The deep foundation-walls, at all her toil she prayed.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And men who loved the truth because it made them free,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And clearly saw the twofold Word of God agree,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Reading from Nature’s book and from the Bible’s page",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By the same inward ray that grows from age to age,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Were built like living stones that beacon to uplift,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And drawing light from heaven gave to the world the gift.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor ever, while they searched the secrets of the earth,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or traced the stream of life through mystery to its birth,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor ever, while they taught the lightning-flash to bear",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The messages of man in silence through the air,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fell from their home of light one false, perfidious ray",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To blind the trusting heart, or lead the life astray.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But still, while knowledge grew more luminous and broad",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "It lit the path of faith and showed the way to God.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Yet not for peace alone",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Labour the builders.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Work that in peace has grown",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Swiftly is overthrown,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When in the darkening skies",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Storm-clouds of wrath arise,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And through the cannon’s crash,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "War’s deadly lightning-flash",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Smites and bewilders.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Ramparts of strength must frown",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Round every placid town",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And city splendid;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "All that our fathers wrought",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With true prophetic thought,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Must be defended!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But who could raise protecting walls for thee,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Thou young, defenceless land of liberty?",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Or who could build a fortress strong enough,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Or stretch a mighty bulwark long enough",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "To hold thy far-extended coast",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "Against the overweening host",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "That took the open path across the sea,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And like a tempest poured",
    "indent": 5
   },
   {
    "text": "Their desolating horde,",
    "indent": 5
   },
   {
    "text": "To quench thy dawning light in gloom of tyranny?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yet not unguarded thou wert found",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "When on thy shore with sullen sound",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The blaring trumpets of an unjust king",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Proclaimed invasion. From the ground,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "In freedom’s darkest hour, there seemed to spring",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Unconquerable walls for her defence;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Not trembling, like those battlements of stone",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "That fell when Joshua’s horns were blown;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But firm and stark the living rampart rose,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "To meet the onset of imperious foes",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "With a long line of brave, unyielding men.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "This was thy fortress, well-defended land,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And on these walls, the patient, building hand",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Of Princeton laboured with the force of ten.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Her sons were foremost in the furious fight;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Her sons were firmest to uphold the right",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "In council-chambers of the new-born State,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And prove that he who would be free must first be great",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In heart, and high in thought, and strong",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "In purpose not to do or suffer wrong.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Such were the men, impregnable to fear,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Whose souls were framed and fashioned here;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And when war shook the land with threatening shock,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The men of Princeton stood like muniments of rock.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor has the breath of Time",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "Dissolved that proud array",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "Of never-broken strength:",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "For though the rocks decay,",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "And all the iron bands",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "Of earthly strongholds are unloosed at length,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And buried deep in gray oblivion’s sands;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The work that heroes’ hands",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "Wrought in the light of freedom’s natal day",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Shall never fade away,",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "But lifts itself, sublime",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "Into a lucid sphere,",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "For ever calm and clear,",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "Preserving in the memory of the fathers’ deed,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "A never-failing fortress for their children’s need.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "There we confirm our hearts to-day, and read",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "On many a stone the signature of fame,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The builder’s mark, our Alma Mater’s name.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Bear with us then a moment, while we turn",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "From all the present splendours of this place⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The lofty towers that like a dream have grown",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Where once old Nassau Hall stood all alone⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Back to that ancient time, with hearts that burn",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "In filial gratitude, to trace",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "The glory of our mother’s best degree,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "In that “high son of Liberty,”",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "Who like a granite block,",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "Riven from Scotland’s rock,",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "Stood loyal here to keep Columbia free.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Born far away beyond the ocean’s tide,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He found his fatherland upon this side;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And every drop of ardent blood that ran",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Through his great heart, was true American.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He held no fealty to a distant throne,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But made his new-found country’s cause his own.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In peril and distress,",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "In toil and weariness,",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "When darkness overcast her",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "With shadows of disaster,",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "And voices of confusion",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "Proclaimed her hope delusion,",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "Robed in his preacher’s gown,",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "He dared the danger down;",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "Like some old prophet chanting an inspired rune",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In freedom’s councils rang the voice of Witherspoon.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And thou, my country, write it on thy heart:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Thy sons are they who nobly take thy part;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Who dedicates his manhood at thy shrine,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Wherever born, is born a son of thine.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Foreign in name, but not in soul, they come",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "To find in thee their long desired home;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Lovers of liberty and haters of disorder,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They shall be built in strength along thy border.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Dream not thy future foes",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Will all be foreign-born!",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Turn thy clear look of scorn",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Upon thy children who oppose",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Their passions wild and policies of shame",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To wreck the righteous splendour of thy name.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Untaught and overconfident they rise,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "With folly on their lips, and envy in their eyes:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Strong to destroy, but powerless to create,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And ignorant of all that made our fathers great,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Their hands would take away thy golden crown,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And shake the pillars of thy freedom down",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In Anarchy’s ocean, dark and desolate.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "O should that storm descend,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "What fortress shall defend",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The land our fathers wrought for,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The liberties they fought for?",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "What bulwark shall secure",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Her shrines of law, and keep her founts of justice pure?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Then, ah then,",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "As in the olden days,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "The builders must upraise",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "A rampart of indomitable men.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And once again,",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "Dear Mother, if thy heart and hand be true,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "There will be building work for thee to do;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yea, more than once again,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Thou shalt win lasting praise,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And never-dying honour shall be thine,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For setting many stones in that illustrious line,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To stand unshaken in the swirling strife,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And guard their country’s honour as her life.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Softly, my harp, and let me lay the touch",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of silence on these rudely clanging strings;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For he who sings",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Even of noble conflicts overmuch,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Loses the inward sense of better things;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And he who makes a boast",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Of knowledge, darkens that which counts the most⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The insight of a wise humility",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "That reverently adores what none can see.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The glory of our life below",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Comes not from what we do, or what we know,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But dwells forevermore in what we are.",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "There is an architecture grander far",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Than all the fortresses of war,",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "More inextinguishably bright",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "Than learning’s lonely towers of light.",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Framing its walls of faith and hope and love",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "In souls of men, it lifts above",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "The frailty of our earthly home",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "An everlasting dome;",
    "indent": 4
   },
   {
    "text": "The sanctuary of the human host,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "The living temple of the Holy Ghost.",
    "indent": 2
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "If music led the builders long ago,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When Arthur planned the halls of Camelot,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And made the royal city grow,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fair as a flower in that forsaken spot;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "What sweeter music shall we bring,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To weave a harmony divine",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of prayer and holy thought",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Into the labours of this loftier shrine,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "This consecrated hill,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Where through so many a year",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Our Alma Mater’s hand hath wrought,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With toil serene and still,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "And heavenly hope, to rear",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Eternal dwellings for the Only King?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Here let no martial trumpets blow,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor instruments of pride proclaim",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The loud exultant notes of fame!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But let the chords be clear and low,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And let the anthem deeper grow,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And let it move more solemnly and slow;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For only such an ode",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Can seal the harmony",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Of that deep masonry",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Wherein the soul of man is framed for God’s abode.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "O Thou whose boundless love bestows",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The joy of earth, the hope of Heaven,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And whose unchartered mercy flows",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "O’er all the blessings Thou hast given;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Thou by whose light alone we see;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And by whose truth our souls set free",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Are made imperishably strong;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Hear Thou the solemn music of our song.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Grant us the knowledge that we need",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To solve the questions of the mind,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And light our candle while we read,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To keep our hearts from going blind;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Enlarge our vision to behold",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The wonders Thou hast wrought of old;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Reveal thyself in every law,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And gild the towers of truth with holy awe.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Be Thou our strength if war’s wild gust",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Shall rage around us, loud and fierce;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Confirm our souls and let our trust",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Be like a shield that none can pierce;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Renew the courage that prevails,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The steady faith that never fails,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And make us stand in every fight",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Firm as a fortress to defend the right.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "O God, control us as Thou wilt,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And guide the labour of our hand;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Let all our work be surely built",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As Thou, the architect, hast planned;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But whatso’er thy power shall make",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of these frail lives, do not forsake",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thy dwelling: let thy presence rest",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For ever in the temple of our breast.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}