{
 "id": "george-macdonald/the-old-castle",
 "title": "The Old Castle",
 "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": 31,
 "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": 17,
  "n_stanzas": 1,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 40,
  "max_indent": 2
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "The brother knew well the castle old,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Every closet, each outlook fair,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Every turret and bartizan bold,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Every chamber, garnished or bare.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The brother was out in the heavenly air;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Little ones lost the starry way,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Wandered down the dungeon stair.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The brother missed them, and on the clay",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of the dungeon-floor he found them all.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Up they jumped when they heard him call!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "He led the little ones into the day⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Out and up to the sunshine gay,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Up to the father’s own door-sill⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "In at the father’s own room door,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "There to be merry and work and play,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "There to come and go at their will,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Good boys and girls to be lost no more!",
    "indent": 2
   }
  ]
 ]
}