{
 "id": "george-macdonald/a-meditation-of-st-eligius",
 "title": "A Meditation of St. Eligius",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "George MacDonald",
 "poet_slug": "george-macdonald",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "The Poetical Works of George MacDonald, Volume II",
 "book_slug": "poetical-works-vol-2",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 19,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1893,
  "venue": "The Poetical Works of George MacDonald, Volume II (1893)",
  "note": "Taken from the 1893 collected Poetical Works, which is the printing this text is and not the poem's first appearance. MacDonald gathered and revised for it work published from 1855 onward, and it arranges the poems by its own editorial grouping rather than by the volumes they came from, so which earlier book or magazine printed this poem first has not been established here.",
  "uncertain": true,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/poeticalworksge00macdgoog",
   "https://archive.org/metadata/poeticalworksge00macdgoog",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/9984"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/george-macdonald_poetry",
  "file": "poetry.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1953",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/8949",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/9543",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/9984",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10578",
   "https://archive.org/details/bookofstrifeinfo00macd",
   "https://archive.org/details/discipleandothe02macdgoog",
   "https://archive.org/details/hiddenlifeandoth00macduoft",
   "https://archive.org/details/discipleandothe02macdgoog",
   "https://archive.org/details/rampolli00macd",
   "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/102955776",
   "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/011821572"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-20"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 36,
  "n_stanzas": 9,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 42,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Queen Mary one day Jesus sent",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To fetch some water, legends tell;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The little boy, obedient,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Drew a full pitcher from the well;",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But as he raised it to his head,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The water lipping with the rim,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The handle broke, and all was shed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Upon the stones about the brim.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "His cloak upon the ground he laid",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And in it gathered up the pool;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Obedient there the water stayed,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And home he bore it plentiful.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Eligius said, “ ’Tis fabled ill:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The hands that all the world control,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Had here been room for miracle,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Had made his mother’s pitcher whole!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Still, some few drops for thirsty need",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A poor invention even, when told",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "In love of thee the Truth indeed,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Like broken pitcher yet may hold:",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Thy truth, alas, Lord, once I spilt:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I thought to bear the pitcher high;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Upon the shining stones of guilt",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I slipped, and there the potsherds lie!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“ ‘Master,’ I cried, ‘no man will drink,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "No human thirst will e’er be stilled",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Through me, who sit upon the brink,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My pitcher broke, thy water spilled!’",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“ ‘What will they do I waiting left?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They looked to me to bring thy law!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The well is deep, and, sin-bereft,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I nothing have wherewith to draw!’ ”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“But as I sat in evil plight,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With dry parched heart and sickened brain,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Uprose in me the water bright,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thou gavest me thyself again!”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}