{
 "id": "henry-van-dyke-jr/the-whip-poor-will",
 "title": "The Whip-Poor-Will",
 "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": 9,
 "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": 60,
  "n_stanzas": 6,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 40,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Do you remember, father⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "It seems so long ago⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The day we fished together",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Along the Pocono?",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "At dusk I waited for you,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Beside the lumber-mill,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And there I heard a hidden bird",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That chanted, “whip-poor-will,”",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "“Whippoorwill! whippoorwill!”",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Sad and shrill⁠—“whippoorwill!”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The place was all deserted;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The mill-wheel hung at rest;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The lonely star of evening",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Was throbbing in the west;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The veil of night was falling;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The winds were folded still;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And everywhere the trembling air",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Re-echoed “whip-poor-will!”",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "“Whippoorwill! whippoorwill!”",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Sad and shrill⁠—“whippoorwill!”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "You seemed so long in coming,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I felt so much alone;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The wide, dark world was round me,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And life was all unknown;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The hand of sorrow touched me,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And made my senses thrill",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "With all the pain that haunts the strain",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of mournful whip-poor-will.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "“Whippoorwill! whippoorwill!”",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Sad and shrill⁠—“whippoorwill!”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "What knew I then of trouble?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "An idle little lad,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "I had not learned the lessons",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That make men wise and sad.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "I dreamed of grief and parting,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And something seemed to fill",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "My heart with tears, while in my ears",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Resounded “whip-poor-will.”",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "“Whippoorwill! whippoorwill!”",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Sad and shrill⁠—“whippoorwill!”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "’Twas but a cloud of sadness,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That lightly passed away;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But I have learned the meaning",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of sorrow, since that day.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "For nevermore at twilight,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Beside the silent mill,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "I’ll wait for you, in the falling dew,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And hear the whip-poor-will.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "“Whippoorwill! whippoorwill!”",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Sad and shrill⁠—“whippoorwill!”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But if you still remember",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In that fair land of light,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The pains and fears that touch us",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Along this edge of night,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "I think all earthly grieving,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And all our mortal ill,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "To you must seem like a sad boy’s dream.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who hears the whip-poor-will.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "“Whippoorwill! whippoorwill!”",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "A passing thrill⁠—“whippoorwill!”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}