{
 "id": "henry-van-dyke-jr/the-lily-of-yorrow",
 "title": "The Lily of Yorrow",
 "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": 10,
 "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": 24,
  "n_stanzas": 8,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 75,
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 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Deep in the heart of the forest the lily of Yorrow is growing;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Blue is its cup as the sky, and with mystical odour o’erflowing;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Faintly it falls through the shadowy glades when the south wind is blowing.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Sweet are the primroses pale and the violets after a shower;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sweet are the borders of pinks and the blossoming grapes on the bower;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sweeter by far is the breath of that far-away woodland flower.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Searching and strange in its sweetness, it steals like a perfume enchanted",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Under the arch of the forest, and all who perceive it are haunted,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Seeking and seeking for ever, till sight of the lily is granted.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Who can describe how it grows, with its chalice of lazuli leaning",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Over a crystalline spring, where the ferns and the mosses are greening?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who can imagine its beauty, or utter the depth of its meaning?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Calm of the journeying stars, and repose of the mountains olden,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Joy of the swift-running rivers, and glory of sunsets golden,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Secrets that cannot be told in the heart of the flower are holden.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Surely to see it is peace and the crown of a life-long endeavour;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Surely to pluck it is gladness⁠—but they who have found it can never",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Tell of the gladness and peace: they are hid from our vision for ever.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "’Twas but a moment ago that a comrade was walking near me:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Turning aside from the pathway he murmured a greeting to cheer me⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Then he was lost in the shade, and I called but he did not hear me.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Why should I dream he is dead, and bewail him with passionate sorrow?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Surely I know there is gladness in finding the lily of Yorrow:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He has discovered it first, and perhaps I shall find it to-morrow.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}