{
 "id": "john-newton/the-gourd",
 "title": "The Gourd",
 "ordinal": "75",
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "John Newton",
 "poet_slug": "john-newton",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Olney Hymns",
 "book_slug": "olney-hymns",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 75,
 "container": "Book I On Select Texts of Scripture",
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1779,
  "venue": "Olney Hymns (1779)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/bim_eighteenth-century_olney-hymns-in-three-bo_newton-john_1779",
   "https://cowperandnewtonmuseum.org.uk/bulletin/computerised-index-to-the-olney-hymns/",
   "https://archive.org/details/olneyhymnsinthre00cowpuoft"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/john-newton_william-cowper_olney-hymns",
  "file": "book-1.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Olney_Hymns_%281840%29",
   "https://archive.org/details/olneyhymnsinthre00cowpuoft"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-15"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 24,
  "n_stanzas": 6,
  "n_parts": 6,
  "longest_line_chars": 42,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [
  {
   "ordinal": "I",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
    0,
    1
   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "II",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
    1,
    2
   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "III",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
    2,
    3
   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "IV",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
    3,
    4
   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "V",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
    4,
    5
   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "VI",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
    5,
    6
   ]
  }
 ],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "As once for Jonah, so the Lord,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To sooth and cheer my mournful hours,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Prepared for me a pleasing gourd,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Cool was its shade, and sweet its flowers.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "To prize this gift was surely right;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But through the folly of my heart,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "It hid the Giver from my sight,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And soon my joy was changed to smart.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "While I admired its beauteous form,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Its pleasant shade and grateful fruit,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The Lord, displeased, sent forth a worm,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Unseen to prey upon the root.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I trembled when I saw it fade,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But guilt restrain’d the murm’ring word;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My folly I confess’d, and pray’d⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Forgive my sin, and spare my gourd.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "His wondrous love can ne’er be told⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He heard me and relieved my pain;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His word the threat’ning worm control’d,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And bid my gourd revive again.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Now, Lord, my gourd is mine no more,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "’Tis thine, who only couldst it raise;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The idol of my heart before",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Henceforth shall flourish to thy praise.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}