{
 "id": "george-macdonald/song-of-the-saints-and-angels",
 "title": "Song of the Saints and Angels",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": "January 26, 1885",
 "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": 85,
 "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": 20,
  "n_stanzas": 5,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 35,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Gordon, the self-refusing,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Gordon, the lover of God,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Gordon, the good part choosing,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Welcome along the road!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Thou knowest the man, O Father!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To do thy will he ran;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Men’s praises he did not gather:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "There is scarce such another man!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Thy black sheep’s faithful shepherd",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who knew not how to flee,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Is torn by the desert leopard,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And comes wounded home to thee!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Home he is coming the faster",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That the way he could not miss:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In thy arms, oh take him, Master,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And heal him with a kiss!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Then give him a thousand cities",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To rule till their evils cease,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And their wailing minor ditties",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Die in a psalm of peace.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}