{
 "id": "john-newton/the-world",
 "title": "The World",
 "ordinal": "99",
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "John Newton",
 "poet_slug": "john-newton",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Olney Hymns",
 "book_slug": "olney-hymns",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 240,
 "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": 32,
  "n_stanzas": 8,
  "n_parts": 8,
  "longest_line_chars": 37,
  "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": [
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   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "VI",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
    5,
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   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "VII",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
    6,
    7
   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "VIII",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
    7,
    8
   ]
  }
 ],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "See, the world for youth prepares,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Harlot-like, her gaudy snares!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Pleasures round her seem to wait,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But ’tis all a painted cheat.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Rash and unsuspecting youth",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thinks to find thee always smooth,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Always kind, till better taught,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By experience dearly bought.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "So the calm but faithless sea,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "(Lively emblem, world, of thee,)",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Tempts the shepherd from the shore,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Foreign regions to explore.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "While no wrinkled wave is seen,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "While the sky remains serene,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fill’d with hopes and golden schemes.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of a storm he little dreams.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "By ere long the tempest raves,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Then he trembles at the waves,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Wishes then he had been wise,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But too late⁠—he sinks and dies.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Hapless, thus, are they, vain world,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Soon on rocks of ruin hurl’d,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who, admiring thee untried,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Court thy pleasure, wealth, or pride.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Such a shipwreck had been mine.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Had not Jesus (name divine!)",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Saved me with a mighty hand,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And restored my soul to land.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Now, with gratitude I raise",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ebenezers to his praise;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Now my rash pursuits are o’er,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I can trust thee, world, no more.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}