{
 "id": "george-macdonald/in-the-night",
 "title": "In the Night",
 "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": null,
 "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": 24,
  "n_stanzas": 6,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 39,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "As to her child a mother calls,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Come to me, child; come near!”",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Calling, in silent intervals,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The Master’s voice I hear.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But does he call me verily?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To have me does he care?",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Why should he seek my poverty,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My selfishness so bare?",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The dear voice makes his gladness brim,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But not a child can know",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Why that large woman cares for him,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Why she should love him so!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Lord, to thy call of me I bow,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Obey like Abraham:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Thou lov’st me because thou art thou,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And I am what I am!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Doubt whispers, “Thou art such a blot”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“He cannot love poor thee:”",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "If what I am he loveth not,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He loves what I shall be.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Nay, that which can be drawn and wooed,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And turned away from ill,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Is what his father made for good:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He loves me, I say still!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}