{
 "id": "henry-van-dyke-jr/the-river-of-dreams",
 "title": "The River of Dreams",
 "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": 53,
 "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": 99,
  "n_stanzas": 7,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 49,
  "max_indent": 2
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "The river of dreams runs quietly down",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From its hidden home in the forest of sleep,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "With a measureless motion calm and deep;",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "And my boat slips out on the current brown,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In a tranquil bay where the trees incline",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Far over the waves, and creepers twine",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Far over the boughs, as if to steep",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Their drowsy bloom in the tide that goes",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "By a secret way that no man knows,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Under the branches bending,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Under the shadows blending,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the body rests, and the passive soul",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Is drifted along to an unseen goal,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "While the river of dreams runs down.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The river of dreams runs gently down,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With a leisurely flow that bears my bark",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Out of the visionless woods of dark,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Into a glory that seems to crown",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Valley and hill with light from far,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Clearer than sun or moon or star,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Luminous, wonderful, weird, oh, mark",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "How the radiance pulses everywhere,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "In the shadowless vault of lucid air!",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Over the mountains shimmering,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Up from the fountains glimmering⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "’Tis the mystical glow of the inner light,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "That shines in the very noon of night,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "While the river of dreams runs down.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The river of dreams runs murmuring down,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Through the fairest garden that ever grew;",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "And now, as my boat goes drifting through,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "A hundred voices arise to drown",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The river’s whisper, and charm my ear",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "With a sound I have often longed to hear⁠—",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "A magical music, strange and new,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "The wild-rose ballad, the lilac-song,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "The virginal chant of the lilies’ throng,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Blue-bells silverly ringing,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Pansies merrily singing⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For all the flowers have found their voice;",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "And I feel no wonder, but only rejoice,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "While the river of dreams runs down.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The river of dreams runs broadening down,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Away from the peaceful garden-shore,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "With a current that deepens more and more,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "By the league-long walls of a mighty town;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And I see the hurrying crowds of men",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Gather like clouds and dissolve again;",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "But never a face I have seen before.",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "They come and go, they shift and change,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Their ways and looks are wild and strange⁠—",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "This is a city haunted,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A multitude enchanted!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "At the sight of the throng I am dumb with fear,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "And never a sound from their lips I hear,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "While the river of dreams runs down.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The river of dreams runs darkly down",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Into the heart of a desolate land,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "With ruined temples half-buried in sand,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "And riven hills, whose black brows frown",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Over the shuddering, lonely wave.",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "The air grows dim with the dust of the grave;",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "No sign of life on the dreary strand;",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "No ray of light on the mountain’s crest;",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "And a weary wind that cannot rest",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Comes down the valley creeping,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Lamenting, wailing, weeping⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I strive to cry out, but my fluttering breath",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Is choked with the clinging fog of death,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "While the river of dreams runs down.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The river of dreams runs trembling down,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Out of the valley of nameless fear,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Into a country calm and clear,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "With a mystical name of high renown⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A name that I know, but may not tell⁠—",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "And there the friends that I loved so well,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Old companions forever dear,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Come beckoning down to the river shore,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "And hail my boat with the voice of yore.",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Fair and sweet are the places",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where I see their unchanged faces!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And I feel in my heart with a secret thrill,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "That the loved and lost are living still,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "While the river of dreams runs down.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The river of dreams runs dimly down",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By a secret way that no man knows;",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "But the soul lives on while the river flows",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Through the gardens bright and the forests brown;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And I often think that our whole life seems",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "To be more than half made up of dreams.",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "The changing sights and the passing shows,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "The morning hopes and the midnight fears,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Are left behind with the vanished years;",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Onward, with ceaseless motion,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The life-stream flows to the ocean,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "While we follow the tide, awake or asleep,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Till we see the dawn on Love’s great deep,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "And the shadows melt, and the soul is free⁠—",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "The river of dreams has reached the sea.",
    "indent": 2
   }
  ]
 ]
}