{
 "id": "henry-van-dyke-jr/three-alpine-sonnets",
 "title": "Three Alpine Sonnets",
 "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": 1,
 "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": 42,
  "n_stanzas": 6,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 50,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "At dawn in silence moves the mighty stream,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The silver-crested waves no murmur make;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But far away the avalanches wake",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The rumbling echoes, dull as in a dream;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Their momentary thunders, dying, seem",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To fall into the stillness, flake by flake,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And leave the hollow air with naught to break",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The frozen spell of solitude supreme.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "At noon unnumbered rills begin to spring",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Beneath the burning sun, and all the walls",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Of all the ocean-blue crevasses ring",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With liquid lyrics of their waterfalls;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "As if a poet’s heart had felt the glow",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of sovereign love, and song began to flow.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "White Death had laid his pall upon the plain,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And crowned the mountain-peaks like monarchs dead;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The vault of heaven was glaring overhead",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "With pitiless light that filled my eyes with pain;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And while I vainly longed, and looked in vain",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For sign or trace of life, my spirit said,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "“Shall any living thing that dares to tread",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "This royal lair of Death escape again?”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But even then I saw before my feet",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A line of pointed footprints in the snow:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Some roving chamois, but an hour ago,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Had passed this way along his journey fleet,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And left a message from a friend unknown",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To cheer my pilgrim-heart, no more alone.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I love the hour that comes, with dusky hair",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And dewy feet, along the Alpine dells,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "To lead the cattle forth. A thousand bells",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Go chiming after her across the fair",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And flowery uplands, while the rosy flare",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of sunset on the snowy mountain dwells,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And valleys darken, and the drowsy spells",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Of peace are woven through the purple air.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Dear is the magic of this hour: she seems",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To walk before the dark by falling rills,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And lend a sweeter song to hidden streams;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "She opens all the doors of night, and fills",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "With moving bells the music of my dreams,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That wander far among the sleeping hills.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}