{
 "id": "george-macdonald/the-sheep-and-the-goat",
 "title": "The Sheep and the Goat",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "George MacDonald",
 "poet_slug": "george-macdonald",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "The Disciple and Other Poems",
 "book_slug": "the-disciple-and-other-poems",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 3,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1867,
  "venue": "The Disciple and Other Poems (1867)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/discipleandothe02macdgoog",
   "https://archive.org/metadata/discipleandothe02macdgoog"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/george-macdonald_poetry",
  "file": "poetry.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
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   "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": 50,
  "n_stanzas": 10,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 42,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "The thousand streets of London gray",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Repel all country sights;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But bar not winds upon their way,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor quench the scent of new-mown hay",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In depth of summer nights.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And here and there an open spot,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Still bare to light and dark,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "With grass receives the wanderer hot;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "There trees are growing, houses not⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They call the place a park.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Soft creatures, with ungentle guides,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "God’s sheep from hill and plain,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Flow thitherward in fitful tides,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "There weary lie on woolly sides,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or crop the grass amain.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And from dark alley, yard, and den,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In ragged skirts and coats,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Come thither children of poor men,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Wild things, untaught of word or pen⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The little human goats.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "In Regent’s Park, one cloudless day,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "An overdriven sheep,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Come a hard, long, and dusty way,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Throbbing with thirst and hotness lay,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A panting woollen heap.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But help is nearer than we know",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For ills of every name:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Ragged enough to scare the crow,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But with a heart to pity woe,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A quick-eyed urchin came.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Little he knew of field or fold,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yet knew what ailed; his cap",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Was ready cup for water cold;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Though creased, and stained, and very old,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "’Twas not much torn, good hap!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Shaping the rim and crown he went,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Till crown from rim was deep;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The water gushed from pore and rent,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Before he came one half was spent⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The other saved the sheep.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "O little goat, born, bred in ill,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Unwashed, half-fed, unshorn,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Thou to the sheep from breezy hill",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Wast bishop, pastor, what you will,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In London dry and lorn!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And let priests say the thing they please,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My faith, though poor and dim,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Thinks he will say who always sees,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In doing it to one of these",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thou didst it unto him.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}