{
 "id": "henry-van-dyke-jr/to-james-whitcomb-riley",
 "title": "To James Whitcomb Riley",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": "On His “Book of Joyous Children”",
 "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": 141,
 "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": 16,
  "n_stanzas": 4,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 43,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Yours is a garden of old-fashioned flowers;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Joyous children delight to play there;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Weary men find rest in its bowers,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Watching the lingering light of day there.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Old-time tunes and young love-laughter",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ripple and run among the roses;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Memory’s echoes, murmuring after,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fill the dusk when the long day closes.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Simple songs with a cadence olden⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "These you learned in the Forest of Arden:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Friendly flowers with hearts all golden⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "These you borrowed from Eden’s garden.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "This is the reason why all men love you;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Truth to life is the finest art:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Other poets may soar above you⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "You keep close to the human heart.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}