| Alfred H. Miles, ed. The Sacred Poets of the Nineteenth Century. 1907. | | | A Book of Sonnets.
II. The Sweeper of the Floor | | By George MacDonald (1824–1905) |
| | | METHOUGHT that in a solemn church I stood. | |
| Its marble acres, worn with knees and feet, | |
| Lay spread from door to door, from street to street. | |
| Midway the form hung high upon the rood | |
| Of Him who gave His life to be our good; | 5 |
| Beyond, priests flitted, bowed, and murmured meet, | |
| Among the candles shining still and sweet. | |
| Men came and went, and worshipped as they could— | |
| And still their dust a woman with her broom, | |
| Bowed to her work, kept sweeping to the door. | 10 |
| Then saw I, slow through all the pillared gloom, | |
| Across the church a silent figure come: | |
| “Daughter,” it said, “thou sweepest well my floor!” | |
| It is the Lord! I cried, and saw no more. | | | | |
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