{
 "id": "george-macdonald/dr-doddridges-dog",
 "title": "Dr. Doddridge’s Dog",
 "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": 79,
 "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": [
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   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/8949",
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   "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": 28,
  "n_stanzas": 7,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 36,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "My little dog, who blessed you",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With such white toothy-pegs?",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And who was it that dressed you",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In such a lot of legs?",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Perhaps he never told you!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Perhaps you know quite well,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And beg me not to scold you",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For you can’t speak to tell!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I’ll tell you, little brother,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In case you do not know:⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "One only, not another,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Could make us two just so.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "You love me?⁠—Quiet!⁠—I’m proving!⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "It must be God above",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "That filled those eyes with loving:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He was the first to love!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "One day he’ll stop all sadness⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Hark to the nightingale!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Oh blessed God of gladness!⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Come, doggie, wag your tail!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "That’s⁠—Thank you, God!⁠—He gave you",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of life this little taste;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And with more life he’ll save you,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Not let you go to waste!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "He says now, Live together,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And share your bite and sup;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And then he’ll say, Come hither⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And lift us both high up.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}