{
 "id": "henry-van-dyke-jr/three-prayers-for-sleep-and-waking",
 "title": "Three Prayers for Sleep and Waking",
 "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": 67,
 "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": 36,
  "n_stanzas": 6,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 37,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Ere thou sleepest gently lay",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Every troubled thought away:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Put off worry and distress",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As thou puttest off thy dress:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Drop thy burden and thy care",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In the quiet arms of prayer.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Lord, Thou knowest how I live,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All I’ve done amiss forgive:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All of good I’ve tried to do,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Strengthen, bless, and carry through,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All I love in safety keep,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "While in Thee I fall asleep.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "If slumber should forsake",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thy pillow in the dark,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Fret not thyself to mark",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "How long thou liest awake.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "There is a better way;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Let go the strife and strain,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Thine eyes will close again,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "If thou wilt only pray.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Lord, Thy peaceful gift restore,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Give my body sleep once more:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "While I wait my soul will rest",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Like a child upon Thy breast.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Ere thou risest from thy bed,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Speak to God Whose wings were spread",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "O’er thee in the helpless night:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Lo, He wakes thee now with light!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Lift thy burden and thy care",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In the mighty arms of prayer.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Lord, the newness of this day",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Calls me to an untried way:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Let me gladly take the road,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Give me strength to bear my load,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thou my guide and helper be⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I will travel through with Thee.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}