{
 "id": "george-macdonald/the-flower-angels",
 "title": "The Flower-Angels",
 "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": 44,
 "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": 24,
  "n_stanzas": 6,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 43,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Of old, with goodwill from the skies⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "God’s message to them given⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The angels came, a glad surprise,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And went again to heaven.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But now the angels are grown rare,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Needed no more as then;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Far lowlier messengers can bear",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "God’s goodwill unto men.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Each year, the snowdrops’ pallid dawn",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Breaks from the earth below;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Light spreads, till, from the dark updrawn,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The noontide roses glow.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The snowdrops first⁠—the dawning gray;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Then out the roses burn!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "They speak their word, grow dim⁠—away",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To holy dust return.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Of oracles were little dearth,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Should heaven continue dumb;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "From lowliest corners of the earth",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "God’s messages will come.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "In thy face his we see, O Lord,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And are no longer blind;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Need not so much his rarer word,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In flowers even read his mind.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}