{
 "id": "henry-van-dyke-jr/the-standard-bearer",
 "title": "The Standard-Bearer",
 "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": 36,
 "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": 22,
  "n_stanzas": 2,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 46,
  "max_indent": 2
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 "site_ready": true,
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "“How can I tell,” Sir Edmund said,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Who has the right or the wrong o’ this thing?",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Cromwell stands for the people’s cause,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Charles is crowned by the ancient laws;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "English meadows are sopping red,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Englishmen striking each other dead⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Times are black as a raven’s wing.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Out of the ruck and the murk I see",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Only one thing!",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "The King has trusted his banner to me,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And I must fight for the King.”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Into the thick of the Edgehill fight",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sir Edmund rode with a shout; and the ring",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Of grim-faced, hard-hitting Parliament men",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Swallowed him up⁠—it was one against ten!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "He fought for the standard with all his might,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Never again did he come to sight⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Victor, hid by the raven’s wing!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "After the battle had passed we found",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Only one thing⁠—",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "The hand of Sir Edmund gripped around",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The banner-staff of his King.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}