# Master — Poetry character guide

> Master in Poetry by George MacDonald.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** master

**First appearance:** 0383-master-and-boy

## Snapshot

The unseen Master whose voice calls through silent intervals, drawing the reluctant soul toward obedience even as doubt whispers that such love is impossible.

## Who they are

Master is the figure addressed in 'In the Night,' the one whose call the speaker hears as a mother calls her child, and whose care the speaker questions because he cannot fathom why so large a love should stoop to his poverty. The tension is between the soul's self-accusation — 'Thou art such a blot' — and the Master's persistent, unearned affection. He anchors the early-middle arc of the gospel poems by making the reader sit with the ache of being loved before being able to believe it.

## In the story

### [Reverence Waking Hope](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_8_se/chapters/reverence-waking-hope)

The grey, grey man with white-headed children, addressed with reverence and doubt.

### [Cottage Songs](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_8_se/chapters/cottage-songs)

Master Sun personified, greeting Mistress Water at the well.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_8_se/characters/master_unnamed
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_8_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_8_se/characters