{
 "id": "george-macdonald/the-dead-hand",
 "title": "The Dead Hand",
 "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": 34,
 "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": 32,
  "n_stanzas": 8,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 50,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "The witch lady walked along the strand,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Heard a roaring of the sea,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "On the edge of a pool saw a dead man’s hand,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Good thing for a witch lady!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Lightly she stepped across the rocks,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Came where the dead man lay:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Now pretty maid with your merry mocks,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Now I shall have my way!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "On a finger shone a sapphire blue",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In the heart of six rubies red:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Come back to me, my promise true,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Come back, my ring, she said.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "She took the dead hand in the live,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And at the ring drew she;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The dead hand closed its fingers five,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And it held the witch lady.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "She swore the storm was not her deed,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Dark spells she backward spoke;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "If the dead man heard he took no heed,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But held like a cloven oak.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Deathly cold, crept up the tide,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sure of her, made no haste;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Crept up to her knees, crept up each side,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Crept up to her wicked waist.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Over the blue sea sailed the bride",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In her love’s own sailing ship,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And the witch she saw them across the tide",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As it rose to her lying lip.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Oh, the heart of the dead and the hand of the dead",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Are strong hasps they to hold!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Fled the true dove with the kite’s new love,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And left the false kite with the old.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}