{
 "id": "henry-van-dyke-jr/the-little-neck-clam",
 "title": "The Little-Neck Clam",
 "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": 149,
 "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": 60,
  "n_stanzas": 13,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 56,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "The clam that once, on Jersey’s banks,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Was like the man who dug it, free,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Now slave-like thro’ the market clanks",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In chains of corporate tyranny.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The Standard Fish-Trust of New York",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Holds every clam-bank in control;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And like base Beef and menial Pork,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The free-born Clam has lost its soul.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "No more the bivalve treads the sands",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In freedom’s rapture, free from guilt:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "It follows now the harsh commands",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of Morgiman and Rockabilt.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Rise, freemen, rise! Your wrath is just!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Call on the Sherman Act to dam",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The floods of this devouring Trust,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And liberate the fettered Clam.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Not Dante when he wandered by the river Arno,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Not Burns who plowed the banks and braes of bonnie Ayr,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Not even Shakspere on the shores of Avon⁠—ah, no!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Not one of those great bards did taste true Poet’s Fare.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But Whitman, loafing in Long Island and New Jersey,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Found there the sustenance of mighty ode and psalm,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And while his rude emotions swam around in verse, he",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fed chiefly on the wild, impassioned, sea-born clam.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Thus in his work we feel the waves’ bewildering motion,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And winds from mighty mud-flats, weird and wild:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His clam-filled bosom answered to the voice of ocean,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And rose and fell responsively with every tide.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Clam O! Fres’ Clam!” How strange it sounds and sweet,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The Dago’s cry along the New York street!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Dago” we call him, like the thoughtless crowd;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And yet this humble man may well be proud",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To hail from Petrarch’s land, Boccaccio’s home⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Firenze, Gubbio, Venezia, Rome⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From fair Italia, whose enchanted soil",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Transforms the lowly cotton-seed to olive-oil.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "To me his chant, with alien accent sung,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Brings back an echo of great Virgil’s tongue:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "It seems to cry against the city’s woe,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In liquid Latin syllables⁠—Clamo!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As thro’ the crowded street his cart he jams",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And cries aloud, ah, think of more than clams!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Receive his secret plaint with pity warm,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And grant Italia’s plea for Tenement-House Reform!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Fair Phyllis is another’s bride:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Therefore I like to sit beside",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Her at a very smart set dinner,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And whisper love, and try to win her.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The little-necks⁠—in number six⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That from their pearly shells she picks",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And swallows whole⁠—ah, is it selfish",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To wish my heart among those shell-fish?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“But Phyllis is another’s wife;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And if she should absorb thy life",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "’Twould leave thy bosom vacant.”⁠—Well,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I’d keep at least the empty shell!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Low dost thou lie amid the languid ooze,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Because thy slothful spirit doth refuse",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The bliss of battle and the strain of strife.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Rise, craven clam, and lead the strenuous life!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}