{
 "id": "george-macdonald/little-elfie",
 "title": "Little Elfie",
 "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": 69,
 "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": 44,
  "n_stanzas": 11,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 42,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "I have a puppet-jointed child,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "She’s but three half-years old;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Through lawless hair her eyes gleam wild",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With looks both shy and bold.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Like little imps, her tiny hands",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Dart out and push and take;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Chide her⁠—a trembling thing she stands,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And like two leaves they shake.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But to her mind a minute gone",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Is like a year ago;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And when you lift your eyes anon,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Anon you must say “No!”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Sometimes, though not oppressed with care,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "She has her sleepless fits;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Then, blanket-swathed, in that round chair",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The elfish mortal sits;⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Where, if by chance in mood more grave,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A hermit she appears",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Propped in the opening of his cave,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Mummied almost with years;",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Or like an idol set upright",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With folded legs for stem,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Ready to hear prayers all the night",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And never answer them.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But where’s the idol-hermit thrust?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Her knees like flail-joints go!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Alternate kiss, her mother must,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Now that, now this big toe!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I turn away from her, and write",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For minutes three or four:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "A tiny spectre, tall and white,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "She’s standing by the door!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Then something comes into my head",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That makes me stop and think:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "She’s on the table, the quadruped,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And dabbling in my ink!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "O Elfie, make no haste to lose",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thy ignorance of offence!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Thou hast the best gift I could choose,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A heavenly confidence.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "’Tis time, long-white-gowned Mrs. Ham,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To put you in the ark!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Sleep, Elfie, God-infolded lamb,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sleep shining through the dark.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}