{
 "id": "john-newton/the-spider-and-bee",
 "title": "The Spider and Bee",
 "ordinal": "91",
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "John Newton",
 "poet_slug": "john-newton",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Olney Hymns",
 "book_slug": "olney-hymns",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 232,
 "container": "IV Creation",
 "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-2.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": 42,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [
  {
   "ordinal": "I",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
    0,
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   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "II",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
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  },
  {
   "ordinal": "III",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
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   "ordinal": "IV",
   "title": null,
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   "title": null,
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  {
   "ordinal": "VI",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
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   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "VII",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
    6,
    7
   ]
  }
 ],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "On the same flow’r we often see",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The loathsome spider and the bee;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But what they get by working there",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Is diff’rent as their natures are.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The bee a sweet reward obtains,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And honey well repays his pains;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Home to the hive he bears the store,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And then returns in quest of more.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But no sweet flow rs that grace the field",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Can honey to the spider yield;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A cobweb all that he can spin,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And poison all the stores within.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Thus in that sacred field, the Word,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With flow’rs of God’s own planting stored.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Like bees his children feed and thrive,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And bring home honey to the hive.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "There, spider-like, the wicked come,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And seem to taste the sweet perfume;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But the vile venom of their hearts",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To poison all their food converts.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "From the same truths believers prize",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They weave vain refuges of lies;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And from the promise license draw",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To trifle with the holy law.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Lord, shall thy word of life and love",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The means of death to numbers prove?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Unless thy grace our hearts renew",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "We sink to hell with heaven in view.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}