{
 "id": "george-macdonald/a-song-prayer",
 "title": "A Song Prayer",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "George MacDonald",
 "poet_slug": "george-macdonald",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "The Poetical Works of George MacDonald, Volume I",
 "book_slug": "poetical-works-vol-1",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 66,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1893,
  "venue": "The Poetical Works of George MacDonald, Volume I (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/poeticalworks01macduoft",
   "https://archive.org/metadata/poeticalworks01macduoft",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/9543"
  ]
 },
 "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": 6,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 33,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Lord Jesus,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Oh, ease us",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of Self that oppresses,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Annoys and distresses",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Body and brain",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With dull pain!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Thou never,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Since ever,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Save one moment only,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Wast left, or wast lonely:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "We are alone,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And make moan.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Far parted,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Dull-hearted,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "We wander, sleep-walking,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Mere shadows, dim-stalking:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Orphans we roam,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Far from home.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Oh new man,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sole human,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "God’s son, and our brother,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Give each to the other⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "No one left out",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In cold doubt!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "High Father,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Oh gather",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thy sons and thy daughters,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Through fires and through waters,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Home to the nest",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of thy breast!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "There under",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The wonder",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of great wings of healing,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of love and revealing,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Teach us anew",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To sing true.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}