{
 "id": "george-macdonald/my-eyes-make-pictures",
 "title": "My Eyes Make Pictures",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "George MacDonald",
 "poet_slug": "george-macdonald",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "A Hidden Life and Other Poems",
 "book_slug": "a-hidden-life-and-other-poems",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 5,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1864,
  "venue": "A Hidden Life and Other Poems (1864)",
  "note": "Taken from the 1864 volume A Hidden Life and Other Poems, which is the printing this text derives from rather than the poem's first appearance: the same poems stand at the same page numbers in MacDonald's Poems (London, 1857), so an earlier printing is known and 1864 is not it. Whether the 1857 volume or a periodical printed the poem first has not been established here.",
  "uncertain": true,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_N7tfAAAAMAAJ",
   "https://archive.org/details/hiddenlifeandoth00macduoft",
   "https://archive.org/metadata/hiddenlifeandoth00macduoft"
  ]
 },
 "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": 56,
  "n_stanzas": 7,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 38,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Fair morn, I bring my greeting",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To lofty skies, and pale,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Save where cloud-shreds are fleeting",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Before the driving gale,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The weary branches tossing,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Careless of autumn’s grief,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Shadow and sunlight crossing",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On each earth-spotted leaf.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I will escape their grieving;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And so I close my eyes,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And see the light boat heaving",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where the billows fall and rise;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "I see the sunlight glancing",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Upon its silvery sail,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Where a youth’s wild heart is dancing,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And a maiden growing pale.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And I am quietly pacing",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The smooth stones o’er and o’er,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Where the merry waves are chasing",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Each other to the shore.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Words come to me while listening",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where the rocks and waters meet,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And the little shells are glistening",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In sand-pools at my feet.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Away! the white sail gleaming!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Again I close my eyes,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And the autumn light is streaming",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From pale blue cloudless skies;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Upon the lone hill falling",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "’Mid the sound of heather-bells,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Where the running stream is calling",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Unto the silent wells.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Along the pathway lonely,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My horse and I move slow;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "No living thing, save only",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The home-returning crow.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And the moon, so large, is peering",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Up through the white cloud foam;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And I am gladly nearing",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My father’s house, my home.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "As I were gently dreaming",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The solemn trees look out;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The hills, the waters seeming",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In still sleep round about;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And in my soul are ringing",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Tones of a spirit-lyre,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "As my beloved were singing",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Amid a sister-choir.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "If peace were in my spirit,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "How oft I’d close my eyes,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And all the earth inherit,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And all the changeful skies!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Thus leave the sermon dreary,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thus leave the lonely hearth;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "No more a spirit weary⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A free one of the earth!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}