{
 "id": "henry-van-dyke-jr/the-fall-of-the-leaves",
 "title": "The Fall of the Leaves",
 "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": 5,
 "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": 41,
  "n_stanzas": 9,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 43,
  "max_indent": 3
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "In warlike pomp, with banners flowing,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The regiments of autumn stood:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "I saw their gold and scarlet glowing",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From every hillside, every wood.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Above the sea the clouds were keeping",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Their secret leaguer, gray and still;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "They sent their misty vanguard creeping",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With muffled step from hill to hill.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "All day the sullen armies drifted",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Athwart the sky with slanting rain;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "At sunset for a space they lifted,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With dusk they settled down again.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "At dark the winds began to blow",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With mutterings distant, low;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From sea and sky they called their strength",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Till with an angry, broken roar,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Like billows on an unseen shore,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Their fury burst at length.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I heard through the night",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "The rush and the clamour;",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "The pulse of the fight",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Like blows of Thor’s hammer;",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "The pattering flight",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Of the leaves, and the anguished",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Moan of the forest vanquished.",
    "indent": 2
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "At daybreak came a gusty song:",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "“Shout! the winds are strong.",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "The little people of the leaves are fled.",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Shout! The Autumn is dead!”",
    "indent": 2
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The storm is ended! The impartial sun",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Laughs down upon the battle lost and won,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And crowns the triumph of the cloudy host",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In rolling lines retreating to the coast.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But we, fond lovers of the woodland shade,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And grateful friends of every fallen leaf,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Forget the glories of the cloud-parade,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And walk the ruined woods in quiet grief.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "For ever so our thoughtful hearts repeat",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On fields of triumph dirges of defeat;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And still we turn on gala-days to tread",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Among the rustling memories of the dead.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}