{
 "id": "henry-van-dyke-jr/the-song-sparrow",
 "title": "The Song-Sparrow",
 "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": 12,
 "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": 45,
  "n_stanzas": 5,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 46,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "There is a bird I know so well,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "It seems as if he must have sung",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Beside my crib when I was young;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Before I knew the way to spell",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The name of even the smallest bird,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "His gentle-joyful song I heard.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Now see if you can tell, my dear.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "What bird it is that, every year,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sings “Sweet⁠—sweet⁠—sweet⁠—very merry cheer.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "He comes in March, when winds are strong,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And snow returns to hide the earth;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But still he warms his heart with mirth,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And waits for May. He lingers long",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "While flowers fade; and every day",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Repeats his small, contented lay;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "As if to say, we need not fear",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The season’s change, if love is here",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With “Sweet⁠—sweet⁠—sweet⁠—very merry cheer.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "He does not wear a Joseph’s-coat",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of many colours, smart and gay;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "His suit is Quaker brown and gray,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "With darker patches at his throat.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And yet of all the well-dressed throng",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Not one can sing so brave a song.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "It makes the pride of looks appear",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A vain and foolish thing, to hear",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His “Sweet⁠—sweet⁠—sweet⁠—very merry cheer.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "A lofty place he does not love,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But sits by choice, and well at ease,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "In hedges, and in little trees",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "That stretch their slender arms above",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The meadow-brook; and there he sings",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Till all the field with pleasure rings;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And so he tells in every ear,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That lowly homes to heaven are near",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In “Sweet⁠—sweet⁠—sweet⁠—very merry cheer.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I like the tune, I like the words;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They seem so true, so free from art,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "So friendly, and so full of heart,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "That if but one of all the birds",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Could be my comrade everywhere,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "My little brother of the air,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "I’d choose the song-sparrow, my dear,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Because he’d bless me, every year,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With “Sweet⁠—sweet⁠—sweet⁠—very merry cheer.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}