{
 "id": "george-macdonald/to-s-f-s",
 "title": "To S. F. S.",
 "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": 9,
 "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": {
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  "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": 14,
  "n_stanzas": 1,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 50,
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 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "They say that lonely sorrows do not chance:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "More gently, I think, sorrows together go;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A new one joins the funeral gliding slow",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With less of jar than when it breaks the dance.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Grief swages grief, and joy doth joy enhance;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nature is generous to her children so.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And were they quick to spy the flowers that blow,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As quick to feel the sharp-edged stones that lance",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The foot that must walk naked in life’s way⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Blest by the roadside lily, free from fear,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Oftener than hurt by dash of flinty spear,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They would walk upright, bold, and earnest-gay;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And when the soft night closed the weary day,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Would sleep like those that far-off music hear.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}