{
 "id": "john-henry-newman/fair-words",
 "title": "Fair Words",
 "ordinal": "XLII",
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "John Henry Newman",
 "poet_slug": "john-henry-newman",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Verses on Various Occasions",
 "book_slug": "verses-on-various-occasions",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 42,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1903,
  "venue": "Verses on Various Occasions (1903)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/a600744000newmuoft"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/john-henry-newman_verses-on-various-occasions",
  "file": "verses-on-various-occasions.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "http://www.newmanreader.org/works/verses",
   "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/009038168",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/48927",
   "https://archive.org/details/dreamofgerontius01newmuoft"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-20"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 12,
  "n_stanzas": 3,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 44,
  "max_indent": 2
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Thy words are good, and freely given,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As though thou felt them true;",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Friend, think thee well, to hell or heaven",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A serious heart is due.",
    "indent": 2
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "It pains thee sore, man’s will should swerve",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In his true path divine;",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "And yet thou ventur’st nought to serve",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thy neighbour’s weal nor thine.",
    "indent": 2
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Beware! such words may once be said,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where shame and fear unite;",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "But, spoken twice, they mark instead",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A sin against the light.",
    "indent": 2
   }
  ]
 ]
}