Diary of an Old Soul: Annotated Edition

"Be thou the well by which I lie and rest;

Be thou my tree of life, my garden ground;

Be thou my home, my fire, my chamber blest,

My book of wisdom, loved of all the best;

Oh, be my friend, each day still newer found,

As the eternal days and nights go round!

Nay, nay-thou art my God, in whom all loves are bound!"

In 1880, the prolific author George MacDonald self-published a long poem in book form as a gift for his friends. He called it, in full, A Book of Strife in the Form of the Diary of ...