{
 "id": "george-macdonald/foolish-children",
 "title": "Foolish Children",
 "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": 58,
 "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": 4,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 36,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Waking in the night to pray,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sleeping when the answer comes,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Foolish are we even at play⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Tearfully we beat our drums!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Cast the good dry bread away,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Weep, and gather up the crumbs!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Evermore,” while shines the day,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Lord,” we cry, “thy will be done!”",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Soon as evening groweth gray,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thy fair will we fain would shun!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "“Take, oh, take thy hand away!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "See the horrid dark begun!”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Thou hast conquered Death,” we say,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Christ, whom Hades could not keep!”",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Then, “Ah, see the pallid clay!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Death it is,” we cry, “not sleep!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Grave, take all. Shut out the Day.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sit we on the ground and weep!”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Gathering potsherds all the day,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Truant children, Lord, we roam;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Fret, and longer want to play,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When at cool thy voice doth come!⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Elder Brother, lead the way;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Make us good as we go home.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}