{
 "id": "george-macdonald/bedtime",
 "title": "Bedtime",
 "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": 65,
 "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": 18,
  "n_stanzas": 3,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 37,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Come, children, put away your toys;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Roll up that kite’s long line;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The day is done for girls and boys⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Look, it is almost nine!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Come, weary foot, and sleepy head,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Get up, and come along to bed.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The children, loath, must yet obey;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Up the long stair they creep;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Lie down, and something sing or say",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Until they fall asleep,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "To steal through caverns of the night",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Into the morning’s golden light.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "We, elder ones, sit up more late,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And tasks unfinished ply,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But, gently busy, watch and wait⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Dear sister, you and I,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "To hear the Father, with soft tread,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Coming to carry us to bed.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}