{
 "id": "john-newton/the-prisoner",
 "title": "The Prisoner",
 "ordinal": "34",
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "John Newton",
 "poet_slug": "john-newton",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Olney Hymns",
 "book_slug": "olney-hymns",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 275,
 "container": "III Conflict",
 "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-3.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": 28,
  "n_stanzas": 7,
  "n_parts": 7,
  "longest_line_chars": 40,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "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": [
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   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "IV",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
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   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "V",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
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   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "VI",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
    5,
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   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "VII",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
    6,
    7
   ]
  }
 ],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "When the poor pris’ner, through a grate,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sees others walk at large,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "How does he mourn his lonely state,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And long for a discharge!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Thus I, confined in unbelief,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My loss of freedom mourn;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And spend my hours in fruitless grief",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Until my Lord return.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The beam of day, which pierces through",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The gloom in which I dwell,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Only discloses to my view",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The horrors of my cell.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Ah! how my pensive spirit faints",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To think of former days!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "When I could triumph with the saints,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And join their songs of praise!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But now my joys are all cut off,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In prison I am cast;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And Satan, with a cruel scoff,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Says, “Where’s your God at last?”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Dear Saviour, for thy mercy’s sake,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My strong, my only plea,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "These gates and bars in pieces break,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And set the pris’ner free!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Surely my soul shall sing to thee,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For liberty restored;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And all thy saints admire to see",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The mercies of the Lord.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}