{
 "id": "henry-van-dyke-jr/the-old-flute",
 "title": "The Old Flute",
 "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": 147,
 "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": 38,
  "n_stanzas": 3,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 52,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "The time will come when I no more can play",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "This polished flute: the stops will not obey",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My gnarled fingers; and the air it weaves",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In modulations, like a vine with leaves",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Climbing around the tower of song, will die",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In rustling autumn rhythms, confused and dry.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My shortened breath no more will freely fill",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "This magic reed with melody at will;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My stiffened lips will try and try in vain",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To wake the liquid, leaping, dancing strain;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The heavy notes will falter, wheeze, and faint,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or mock my ear with shrillness of complaint.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Then let me hang this faithful friend of mine",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Upon the trunk of some old, sacred pine,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And sit beneath the green protecting boughs",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To hear the viewless wind, that sings and soughs",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Above me, play its wild, aerial lute,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And draw a ghost of music from my flute!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "So will I thank the gods; and most of all",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The Delian Apollo, whom men call",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The mighty master of immortal sound⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Lord of the billows in their chanting round,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Lord of the winds that fill the wood with sighs,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Lord of the echoes and their sweet replies,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Lord of the little people of the air",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That sprinkle drops of music everywhere,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Lord of the sea of melody that laves",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The universe with never silent waves⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Him will I thank that this brief breath of mine",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Has caught one cadence of the song divine;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And these frail fingers learned to rise and fall",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In time with that great tune which throbs thro’ all;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And these poor lips have lent a lilt of joy",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To songless men whom weary tasks employ!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My life has had its music, and my heart",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In harmony has borne a little part,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And now I come with quiet, grateful breast",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To Death’s dim hall of silence and of rest.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}