{
 "id": "george-macdonald/master-and-boy",
 "title": "Master and Boy",
 "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": 26,
 "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": 20,
  "n_stanzas": 5,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 41,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "“Who is this little one lying,”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Said Time, “at my garden-gate,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Moaning and sobbing and crying,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Out in the cold so late?”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“They lurked until we came near,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Master and I,” the child said,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "“Then caught me, with ‘Welcome, New-year!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Happy Year! Golden-head!’",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“See Christmas-day, my Master,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On the meadow a mile away!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Father Time, make me run faster!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I’m the Shadow of Christmas-day!”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Run, my child; still he’s in sight!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Only look well to his track;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Little Shadow, run like the light,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He misses you at his back!”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Old Time sat down in the sun",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On a grave-stone⁠—his legs were numb:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "“When the boy to his master has run,”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He said, “Heaven’s New Year is come!”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}