{
 "id": "henry-van-dyke-jr/the-grand-canyon",
 "title": "The Grand Canyon",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": "Daybreak",
 "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": 24,
 "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": 131,
  "n_stanzas": 12,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 52,
  "max_indent": 0
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "What makes the lingering Night so cling to thee?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thou vast, profound, primeval hiding-place",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of ancient secrets⁠—gray and ghostly gulf",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Cleft in the green of this high forest land,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And crowded in the dark with giant forms!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Art thou a grave, a prison, or a shrine?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "A stillness deeper than the dearth of sound",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Broods over thee: a living silence breathes",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Perpetual incense from thy dim abyss.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The morning-stars that sang above the bower",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of Eden, passing over thee, are dumb",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With trembling bright amazement; and the Dawn",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Steals through the glimmering pines with naked feet,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Her hand upon her lips, to look on thee!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "She peers into thy depths with silent prayer",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For light, more light, to part thy purple veil.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "O Earth, swift-rolling Earth, reveal, reveal⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Turn to the East, and show upon thy breast",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The mightiest marvel in the realm of Time!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "’Tis done⁠—the morning miracle of light⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The resurrection of the world of hues",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That die with dark, and daily rise again",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With every rising of the splendid Sun!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Be still, my heart! Now Nature holds her breath",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To see the solar flood of radiance leap",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Across the chasm, and crown the western rim",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of alabaster with a far-away",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Rampart of pearl, and flowing down by walls",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of changeful opal, deepen into gold",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of topaz, rosy gold of tourmaline,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Crimson of garnet, green and gray of jade,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Purple of amethyst, and ruby red,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Beryl, and sard, and royal porphyry;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Until the cataract of colour breaks",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Upon the blackness of the granite floor.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "How far below! And all between is cleft",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And carved into a hundred curving miles",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of unimagined architecture! Tombs,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Temples, and colonnades are neighboured there",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By fortresses that Titans might defend,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And amphitheatres where Gods might strive.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Cathedrals, buttressed with unnumbered tiers",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of ruddy rock, lift to the sapphire sky",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A single spire of marble pure as snow;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And huge aerial palaces arise",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Like mountains built of unconsuming flame.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Along the weathered walls, or standing deep",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In riven valleys where no foot may tread,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Are lonely pillars, and tall monuments",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of perished æons and forgotten things.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My sight is baffled by the wide array",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of countless forms: my vision reels and swims",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Above them, like a bird in whirling winds.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yet no confusion fills the awful chasm;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But spacious order and a sense of peace",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Brood over all. For every shape that looms",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Majestic in the throng, is set apart",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From all the others by its far-flung shade,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Blue, blue, as if a mountain-lake were there.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "How still it is! Dear God, I hardly dare",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To breathe, for fear the fathomless abyss",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Will draw me down into eternal sleep.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "What force has formed this masterpiece of awe?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "What hands have wrought these wonders in the waste?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "O river, gleaming in the narrow rift",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of gloom that cleaves the valley’s nether deep⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fierce Colorado, prisoned by thy toil,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And blindly toiling still to reach the sea⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thy waters, gathered from the snows and springs",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Amid the Utah hills, have carved this road",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of glory to the Californian Gulf.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But now, O sunken stream, thy splendour lost,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "’Twixt iron walls thou rollest turbid waves,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Too far away to make their fury heard!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "At sight of thee, thou sullen labouring slave",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of gravitation⁠—yellow torrent poured",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From distant mountains by no will of thine,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Through thrice a hundred centuries of slow",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fallings and liftings of the crust of Earth⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "At sight of thee my spirit sinks and fails.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Art thou alone the Maker? Is the blind",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Unconscious power that drew thee dumbly down",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To cut this gash across the layered globe,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The sole creative cause of all I see?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Are force and matter all? The rest a dream?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Then is thy gorge a canyon of despair,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A prison for the soul of man, a grave",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of all his dearest daring hopes! The world",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Wherein we live and move is meaningless,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "No spirit here to answer to our own!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The stars without a guide: The chance-born Earth",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Adrift in space, no Captain on the ship:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nothing in all the universe to prove",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Eternal wisdom and eternal love!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And man, the latest accident of Time⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who thinks he loves, and longs to understand,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who vainly suffers, and in vain is brave,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who dupes his heart with immortality⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Man is a living lie⁠—a bitter jest",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Upon himself⁠—a conscious grain of sand",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Lost in a desert of unconsciousness,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thirsting for God and mocked by his own thirst.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Spirit of Beauty, mother of delight,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thou fairest offspring of Omnipotence",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Inhabiting this lofty lone abode,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Speak to my heart again and set me free",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From all these doubts that darken earth and heaven!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who sent thee forth into the wilderness",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To bless and comfort all who see thy face?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who clad thee in this more than royal robe",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of rainbows? Who designed these jewelled thrones",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For thee, and wrought these glittering palaces?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who gave thee power upon the soul of man",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To lift him up through wonder into joy?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "God! let the radiant cliffs bear witness, God!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Let all the shining pillars signal, God!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He only, on the mystic loom of light.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Hath woven webs of loveliness to clothe",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His most majestic works: and He alone",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Hath delicately wrought the cactus-flower",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To star the desert floor with rosy bloom.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "O Beauty, handiwork of the Most High,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where’er thou art He tells his Love to man,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And lo, the day breaks, and the shadows flee!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Now, far beyond all language and all art",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In thy wild splendour, Canyon marvellous,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The secret of thy stillness lies unveiled",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In wordless worship! This is holy ground;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thou art no grave, no prison, but a shrine.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Garden of Temples filled with Silent Praise,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "If God were blind thy Beauty could not be!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}