{
 "id": "john-newton/time-how-swift",
 "title": "Time How Swift",
 "ordinal": "1",
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "John Newton",
 "poet_slug": "john-newton",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Olney Hymns",
 "book_slug": "olney-hymns",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 142,
 "container": "New Year’s Hymns",
 "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": 24,
  "n_stanzas": 3,
  "n_parts": 3,
  "longest_line_chars": 35,
  "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
   ]
  }
 ],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "While with ceaseless course the sun",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Hasted through the former year,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Many souls their race have run,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Never more to meet us here:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fix’d in an eternal state,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They have done with all below;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "We a little longer wait,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But how little⁠—none can know.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "As the winged arrow flies,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Speedily the mark to find;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As the lightning from the skies",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Darts, and leaves no trace behind;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Swiftly thus our fleeting days",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Bear us down life’s rapid stream;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Upwards, Lord, our spirits raise,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All below is but a dream.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Thanks for mercies past receive,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Pardon of our sins renew;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Teach us, henceforth, how to live",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With eternity in view;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Bless thy word to young and old,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fill us with a Saviour’s love;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And when life’s short tale is told,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "May we dwell with thee above!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}