{
 "id": "george-macdonald/a-song-in-the-night",
 "title": "A Song in the Night",
 "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": null,
 "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": 20,
  "n_stanzas": 5,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 51,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "A brown bird sang on a blossomy tree,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sang in the moonshine, merrily,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Three little songs, one, two, and three,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A song for his wife, for himself, and me.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "He sang for his wife, sang low, sang high,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Filling the moonlight that filled the sky;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Thee, thee, I love thee, heart alive!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thee, thee, thee, and thy round eggs five!”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "He sang to himself, “What shall I do",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With this life that thrills me through and through!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Glad is so glad that it turns to ache!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Out with it, song, or my heart will break!”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "He sang to me, “Man, do not fear",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Though the moon goes down and the dark is near;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Listen my song and rest thine eyes;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Let the moon go down that the sun may rise!”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I folded me up in the heart of his tune,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And fell asleep with the sinking moon;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I woke with the day’s first golden gleam,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And, lo, I had dreamed a precious dream!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}