{
 "id": "george-macdonald/written-for-one-in-sore-pain",
 "title": "Written for One in Sore Pain",
 "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": 23,
 "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": 20,
  "n_stanzas": 5,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 41,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Shepherd, on before thy sheep,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Hear thy lamb that bleats behind!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Scarce the track I stumbling keep!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Through my thin fleece blows the wind!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Turn and see me, Son of Man!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Turn and lift thy Father’s child;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Scarce I walk where once I ran:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Carry me⁠—the wind is wild!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Thou art strong⁠—thy strength wilt share;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My poor weight thou wilt not feel;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Weakness made thee strong to bear,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Suffering made thee strong to heal!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I were still a wandering sheep",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But for thee, O Shepherd-man!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Following now, I faint, I weep,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yet I follow as I can!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Shepherd, if I fall and lie",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Moaning in the frosty wind,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Yet, I know, I shall not die⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thou wilt miss me⁠—and wilt find!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}