{
 "id": "henry-van-dyke-jr/the-maryland-yellow-throat",
 "title": "The Maryland Yellow-Throat",
 "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": 13,
 "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": 42,
  "n_stanzas": 6,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 41,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "When May bedecks the naked trees",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With tassels and embroideries,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And many blue-eyed violets beam",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Along the edges of the stream,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I hear a voice that seems to say,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Now near at hand, now far away,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Witchery⁠—witchery⁠—witchery.”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "An incantation so serene,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So innocent, befits the scene:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "There’s magic in that small bird’s note⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "See, there he flits⁠—the Yellow-throat;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A living sunbeam, tipped with wings,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A spark of light that shines and sings",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Witchery⁠—witchery⁠—witchery.”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "You prophet with a pleasant name,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "If out of Maryland you came,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "You know the way that thither goes",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where Mary’s lovely garden grows:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fly swiftly back to her, I pray,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And try to call her down this way,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Witchery⁠—witchery⁠—witchery!”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Tell her to leave her cockle-shells,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And all her little silver bells",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That blossom into melody,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And all her maids less fair than she.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "She does not need these pretty things,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For everywhere she comes, she brings",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Witchery⁠—witchery⁠—witchery!”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The woods are greening overhead,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And flowers adorn each mossy bed;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The waters babble as they run⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "One thing is lacking, only one:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "If Mary were but here to-day,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I would believe your charming lay,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Witchery⁠—witchery⁠—witchery!”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Along the shady road I look⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who’s coming now across the brook?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A woodland maid, all robed in white⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The leaves dance round her with delight,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The stream laughs out beneath her feet⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sing, merry bird, the charm’s complete,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Witchery⁠—witchery⁠—witchery!”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}