{
 "id": "henry-van-dyke-jr/the-ruby-crowned-kinglet",
 "title": "The Ruby-Crowned Kinglet",
 "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": null,
 "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": 81,
  "n_stanzas": 6,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 36,
  "max_indent": 6
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Where’s your kingdom, little king?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where the land you call your own,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Where your palace and your throne?",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Fluttering lightly on the wing",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Through the blossom-world of May,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Whither lies your royal way,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Little king?",
    "indent": 6
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Far to northward lies a land",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Where the trees together stand",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Closely as the blades of wheat",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "When the summer is complete.",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Rolling like an ocean wide",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Over vale and mountainside,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Balsam, hemlock, spruce and pine⁠—",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "All those mighty trees are mine.",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "There’s a river flowing free⁠—",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "All its waves belong to me.",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "There’s a lake so clear and bright",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Stars shine out of it all night;",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Rowan-berries round it spread",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Like a belt of coral red.",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Never royal garden planned",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Fair as my Canadian land!",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "There I build my summer nest,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "There I reign and there I rest,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "While from dawn to dark I sing,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Happy kingdom! Lucky king!",
    "indent": 2
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Back again, my little king!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Is your happy kingdom lost",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "To the rebel knave, Jack Frost?",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Have you felt the snow-flakes sting?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Houseless, homeless in October,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Whither now? Your plight is sober,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Exiled king!",
    "indent": 6
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Far to southward lie the regions",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Where my loyal flower-legions",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Hold possession of the year,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Filling every month with cheer.",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Christmas wakes the winter rose;",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "New Year daffodils unclose;",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Yellow jasmine through the wood",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Flows in February flood,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Dropping from the tallest trees",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Golden streams that never freeze.",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Thither now I take my flight",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Down the pathway of the night,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Till I see the southern moon",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Glisten on the broad lagoon,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Where the cypress’ dusky green,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "And the dark magnolia’s sheen,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Weave a shelter round my home.",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "There the snow-storms never come;",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "There the bannered mosses gray",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Like a curtain gently sway,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Hanging low on every side",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Round the covert where I bide,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Till the March azalea glows,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Royal red and heavenly rose,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Through the Carolina glade",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Where my winter home is made.",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "There I hold my southern court,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Full of merriment and sport:",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "There I take my ease and sing,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Happy kingdom! Lucky king!",
    "indent": 2
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Little boaster, vagrant king,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Neither north nor south is yours,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "You’ve no kingdom that endures!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Wandering every fall and spring,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With your ruby crown so slender,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Are you only a Pretender,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Landless king?",
    "indent": 6
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Never king by right divine",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Ruled a richer realm than mine!",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "What are lands and golden crowns,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Armies, fortresses and towns,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Jewels, sceptres, robes and rings⁠—",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "What are these to song and wings?",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Everywhere that I can fly,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "There I own the earth and sky;",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Everywhere that I can sing.",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "There I’m happy as a king.",
    "indent": 2
   }
  ]
 ]
}