{
 "id": "henry-van-dyke-jr/the-parting-and-the-coming-guest",
 "title": "The Parting and the Coming Guest",
 "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": 2,
 "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": 35,
  "n_stanzas": 4,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 44,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Who watched the worn-out Winter die?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who, peering through the window-pane",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "At nightfall, under sleet and rain",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Saw the old graybeard totter by?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who listened to his parting sigh,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The sobbing of his feeble breath,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "His whispered colloquy with Death,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And when his all of life was done",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Stood near to bid a last good-bye?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of all his former friends not one",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Saw the forsaken Winter die.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Who welcomed in the maiden Spring?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who heard her foot-fall, swift and light",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "As fairy-dancing in the night?",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Who guessed what happy dawn would bring",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The flutter of her bluebird’s wing,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The blossom of her mayflower-face",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To brighten every shady place?",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "One morning, down the village street,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "“Oh, here am I,” we heard her sing⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And none had been awake to greet",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The coming of the maiden Spring.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But look, her violet eyes are wet",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With bright, unfallen, dewy tears;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And in her song my fancy hears",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "A note of sorrow trembling yet.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Perhaps, beyond the town, she met",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Old Winter as he limped away",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "To die forlorn, and let him lay",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "His weary head upon her knee,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And kissed his forehead with regret",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "For one so gray and lonely⁠—see,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Her eyes with tender tears are wet.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And so, by night, while we were all at rest,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I think the coming sped the parting guest.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}