{
 "id": "george-macdonald/dorcas",
 "title": "Dorcas",
 "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": 36,
 "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": 24,
  "n_stanzas": 6,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 42,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "If I might guess, then guess I would",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That, mid the gathered folk,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "This gentle Dorcas one day stood,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And heard when Jesus spoke.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "She saw the woven seamless coat⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Half envious, for his sake:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "“Oh, happy hands,” she said, “that wrought",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The honoured thing to make!”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Her eyes with longing tears grow dim:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "She never can come nigh",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "To work one service poor for him",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For whom she glad would die!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But, hark, he speaks! Oh, precious word!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And she has heard indeed!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "“When did we see thee naked, Lord,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And clothed thee in thy need?”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“The King shall answer, Inasmuch",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As to my brethren ye",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Did it⁠—even to the least of such⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ye did it unto me.”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Home, home she went, and plied the loom,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And Jesus’ poor arrayed.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "She died⁠—they wept about the room,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And showed the coats she made.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}