{
 "id": "george-macdonald/the-burnt-offering",
 "title": "The Burnt-Offering",
 "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": 5,
 "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": {
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  "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": 14,
  "n_stanzas": 1,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 52,
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 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Thrice-happy he whose heart, each new-born night,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When old-worn day hath vanished o’er earth’s brim,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And he hath laid him down in chamber dim,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Straightway begins to tremble and grow bright,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And loose faint flashes toward the vaulted height",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of the great peace that overshadoweth him:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Keen lambent flames of hope awake and swim",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Throughout his soul, touching each point with light!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The great earth under him an altar is,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Upon whose top a sacrifice he lies,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Burning in love’s response up to the skies",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Whose fire descended first and kindled his:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When slow the flickering flames at length expire,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sleep’s ashes only hide a glowing fire.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}