Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

W. Garrett Horder, comp. The Poets’ Bible: New Testament. 1895.

The Woman of Samaria

George MacDonald (1824–1905)

IN the hot noon, for water cool,

She strayed in listless mood:

When back she ran, her pitcher full

Forgot behind her stood.

Like one who followed straying sheep,

A weary man she saw,

Who sat upon the well so deep,

And nothing had to draw.

“Give me to drink,” he said. Her hand

Was ready with reply;

From out the old well of the land

She drew him plenteously.

He spake as never man before;

She stands with open ears;

He spake of holy days in store,

Laid bare the vanished years.

She cannot still her throbbing heart;

She hurries to the town,

And cries aloud in street and mart,

“The Lord is here: come down.”

Her life before was strange and sad,

Its tale a dreary sound:

Ah! let it go—or good or bad,

She has the Master found.