{
 "id": "george-macdonald/baby",
 "title": "Baby",
 "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": 70,
 "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": 24,
  "n_stanzas": 12,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 46,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Where did you come from, baby dear?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Out of the everywhere into here.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Where did you get those eyes so blue?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Out of the sky as I came through.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "What makes the light in them sparkle and spin?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Some of the starry twinkles left in.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Where did you get that little tear?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I found it waiting when I got here.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "What makes your forehead so smooth and high?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A soft hand stroked it as I went by.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "What makes your cheek like a warm white rose?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I saw something better than any one knows.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Whence that three-cornered smile of bliss?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Three angels gave me at once a kiss.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Where did you get this pearly ear?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "God spoke, and it came out to hear.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Where did you get those arms and hands?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Love made itself into bonds and bands.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Feet, whence did you come, you darling things?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From the same box as the cherubs’ wings.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "How did they all just come to be you?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "God thought about me, and so I grew.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But how did you come to us, you dear?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "God thought about you, and so I am here.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}