{
 "id": "george-macdonald/blessed-are-the-meek-for-they-shall-inherit-the-earth",
 "title": "Blessed Are the Meek, for They Shall Inherit the Earth",
 "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": 21,
 "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": 32,
  "n_stanzas": 8,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 39,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "A quiet heart, submissive, meek,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Father, do thou bestow,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Which more than granted, will not seek",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To have, or give, or know.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Each little hill then holds its gift",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Forth to my joying eyes;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Each mighty mountain then doth lift",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My spirit to the skies.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Lo, then the running water sounds",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With gladsome, secret things!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The silent water more abounds,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And more the hidden springs.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Live murmurs then the trees will blend",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With all the feathered song;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The waving grass low tribute lend",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Earth’s music to prolong.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The sun will cast great crowns of light",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On waves that anthems roar;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The dusky billows break at night",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In flashes on the shore.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Each harebell, each white lily’s cup,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The hum of hidden bee,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Yea, every odour floating up,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The insect revelry⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Each hue, each harmony divine",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The holy world about,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Its soul will send forth into mine,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My soul to widen out.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And thus the great earth I shall hold,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A perfect gift of thine;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Richer by these, a thousandfold,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Than if broad lands were mine.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}