{
 "id": "george-macdonald/rest",
 "title": "Rest",
 "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": 19,
 "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": 64,
  "n_stanzas": 8,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 41,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "When round the earth the Father’s hands",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Have gently drawn the dark;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Sent off the sun to fresher lands,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And curtained in the lark;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "’Tis sweet, all tired with glowing day,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To fade with fading light,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And lie once more, the old weary way,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Upfolded in the night.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "If mothers o’er our slumbers bend,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And unripe kisses reap,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "In soothing dreams with sleep they blend,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Till even in dreams we sleep.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And if we wake while night is dumb,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "’Tis sweet to turn and say,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "It is an hour ere dawning come,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And I will sleep till day.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "There is a dearer, warmer bed,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where one all day may lie,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Earth’s bosom pillowing the head,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And let the world go by.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "There come no watching mother’s eyes,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The stars instead look down;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Upon it breaks, and silent dies,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The murmur of the town.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The great world, shouting, forward fares:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "This chamber, hid from none,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Hides safe from all, for no one cares",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For him whose work is done.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Cheer thee, my friend; bethink thee how",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A certain unknown place,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Or here or there, is waiting now,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To rest thee from thy race.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Nay, nay, not there the rest from harms,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The still composed breath!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Not there the folding of the arms,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The cool, the blessed death!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "That needs no curtained bed to hide",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The world with all its wars,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "No grassy cover to divide",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From sun and moon and stars.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "It is a rest that deeper grows",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In midst of pain and strife;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "A mighty, conscious, willed repose,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The death of deepest life.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "To have and hold the precious prize",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "No need of jealous bars;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But windows open to the skies,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And skill to read the stars!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Who dwelleth in that secret place,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where tumult enters not,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Is never cold with terror base,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Never with anger hot.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "For if an evil host should dare",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His very heart invest,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "God is his deeper heart, and there",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He enters in to rest.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "When mighty sea-winds madly blow,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And tear the scattered waves,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Peaceful as summer woods, below",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Lie darkling ocean caves:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The wind of words may toss my heart,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But what is that to me!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "’Tis but a surface storm⁠—thou art",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My deep, still, resting sea.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}