{
 "id": "george-macdonald/to-a-j-scott-2",
 "title": "To A. J. Scott",
 "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": null,
 "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": 6,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 51,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "When, long ago, the daring of my youth",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Drew nigh thy greatness with a little thing,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thou didst receive me; and thy sky of truth",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Has domed me since, a heaven of sheltering,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Made homely by the tenderness and grace",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which round thy absolute friendship ever fling",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "A radiant atmosphere. Turn not thy face",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From that small part of earnest thanks, I pray,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which, spoken, leaves much more in speechless case.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I see thee far before me on thy way",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Up the great peaks, and striding stronger still;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thy intellect unrivalled in its sway,",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Upheld and ordered by a regnant will;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thy wisdom, seer and priest of holy fate,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Searching all truths its prophecy to fill;",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But this my joy: throned in thy heart so great,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "High Love is queen, and sits without a mate.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}