{
 "id": "george-macdonald/loves-history",
 "title": "Love’s History",
 "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": 23,
 "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": 28,
  "n_stanzas": 7,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 36,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Love, the baby,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Crept abroad to pluck a flower:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "One said, Yes, sir; one said, Maybe;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "One said, Wait the hour.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Love, the boy,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Joined the youngsters at their play:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But they gave him little joy,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And he went away.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Love, the youth,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Roamed the country, quiver-laden;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "From him fled away in sooth",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Many a man and maiden!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Love, the man,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sought a service all about;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But they called him feeble, one",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They could do without.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Love, the aged,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Walking, bowed, the shadeless miles,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Read a volume many-paged,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Full of tears and smiles.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Love, the weary,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Tottered down the shelving road:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "At its foot, lo, Night, the starry,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Meeting him from God!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Love, the holy,”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sang a music in her dome,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Sang it softly, sang it slowly,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Love is coming home!”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}