{
 "id": "george-macdonald/hard-times",
 "title": "Hard Times",
 "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": 42,
 "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": 17,
  "n_stanzas": 2,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 45,
  "max_indent": 2
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "I am weary, and very lonely,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And can but think⁠—think.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "If there were some water only",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That a spirit might drink⁠—drink,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And arise,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "With light in the eyes",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "And a crown of hope on the brow,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To walk abroad in the strength of gladness,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Not sit in the house, benumbed with sadness⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "As now!",
    "indent": 2
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But, Lord, thy child will be sad⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As sad as it pleases thee;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Will sit, not seeking to be glad,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Till thou bid sadness flee,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And, drawing near,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "With thy good cheer",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Awake thy life in me.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}