{
 "id": "george-macdonald/bird-songs",
 "title": "Bird-Songs",
 "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": 68,
 "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": 36,
  "n_stanzas": 6,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 31,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "I will sing a song,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Said the owl.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "You sing a song, sing-song",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ugly fowl!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "What will you sing about,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Night in and day out?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "All about the night,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When the gray",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "With her cloak smothers bright,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Hard, sharp day.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Oh, the moon! the cool dew!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the shadows!⁠—tu-whoo!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I will sing a song,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Said the nightingale.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Sing a song, long, long,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Little Neverfail!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "What will you sing about,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Day in or day out?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "All about the light",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Gone away,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Down, away, and out of sight:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Wake up, day!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "For the master is not dead,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Only gone to bed.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I will sing a song,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Said the lark.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Sing, sing, Throat-strong,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Little Kill-the-dark!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "What will you sing about,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Day in and night out?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I can only call!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I can’t think!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Let me up, that’s all!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I see a chink!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "I’ve been thirsting all night",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For the glorious light!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}