{
 "id": "george-macdonald/zacchaeus",
 "title": "Zacchaeus",
 "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": 81,
 "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": 28,
  "n_stanzas": 7,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 39,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "To whom the heavy burden clings,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "It yet may serve him like a staff;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "One day the cross will break in wings,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The sinner laugh a holy laugh.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The dwarfed Zacchaeus climbed a tree,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His humble stature set him high;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The Lord the little man did see",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who sought the great man passing by.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Up to the tree he came, and stopped:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“To-day,” he said, “with thee I bide.”",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "A spirit-shaken fruit he dropped,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ripe for the Master, at his side.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Sure never host with gladder look",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A welcome guest home with him bore!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Then rose the Satan of rebuke",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And loudly spake beside the door:",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“This is no place for holy feet;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sinners should house and eat alone!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "This man sits in the stranger’s seat",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And grinds the faces of his own!”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Outspoke the man, in Truth’s own might:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Lord, half my goods I give the poor;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "If one I’ve taken more than right",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With four I make atonement sure!”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Salvation here is entered in;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "This man indeed is Abraham’s son!”",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Said he who came the lost to win⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And saved the lost whom he had won.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}