{
 "id": "george-macdonald/coming",
 "title": "Coming",
 "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": 41,
 "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": 16,
  "n_stanzas": 4,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 40,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "When the snow is on the earth",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Birds and waters cease their mirth;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When the sunlight is prevailing",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Even the night-winds drop their wailing.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "On the earth when deep snows lie",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Still the sun is in the sky,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And when most we miss his fire",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He is ever drawing nigher.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "In the darkest winter day",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thou, God, art not far away;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When the nights grow colder, drearer,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Father, thou art coming nearer!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "For thee coming I would watch",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With my hand upon the latch⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of the door, I mean, that faces",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Out upon the eternal spaces!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}