{
 "id": "george-macdonald/better-things",
 "title": "Better Things",
 "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": 68,
 "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": 9,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 39,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Better to smell the violet",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Than sip the glowing wine;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Better to hearken to a brook",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Than watch a diamond shine.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Better to have a loving friend",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Than ten admiring foes;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Better a daisy’s earthy root",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Than a gorgeous, dying rose.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Better to love in loneliness",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Than bask in love all day;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Better the fountain in the heart",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Than the fountain by the way.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Better be fed by mother’s hand",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Than eat alone at will;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Better to trust in God, than say,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My goods my storehouse fill.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Better to be a little wise",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Than in knowledge to abound;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Better to teach a child than toil",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To fill perfection’s round.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Better to sit at some man’s feet",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Than thrill a listening state;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Better suspect that thou art proud",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Than be sure that thou art great.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Better to walk the realm unseen",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Than watch the hour’s event;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Better the “Well done, faithful slave!”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Than the air with shoutings rent.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Better to have a quiet grief",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Than many turbulent joys;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Better to miss thy manhood’s aim",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Than sacrifice the boy’s.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Better a death when work is done",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Than earth’s most favoured birth;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Better a child in God’s great house",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Than the king of all the earth.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}