{
 "id": "john-newton/waiting-for-spring",
 "title": "Waiting for Spring",
 "ordinal": "31",
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "John Newton",
 "poet_slug": "john-newton",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Olney Hymns",
 "book_slug": "olney-hymns",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 172,
 "container": "After Sermons to Young People on New-Year’s Evenings, Suited to the Subjects",
 "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": 46,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [
  {
   "ordinal": "I",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
    0,
    1
   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "II",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
    1,
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   ]
  },
  {
   "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,
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   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "VIII",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
    7,
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   ]
  }
 ],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Though cloudy skies and northern blasts",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Retard the gentle spring awhile,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The sun will conq’ror prove at last,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And nature wear a vernal smile.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The promise which from age to age",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Has brought the changing seasons round,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Again shall calm the winter’s rage,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Perfume the air and paint the ground.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The virtue of that first command,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I know still does and will prevail,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That while the earth itself shall stand,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The spring and summer shall not fail.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Such changes are for us decreed;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Believers have their winters too;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But spring shall certainly succeed,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And all their former life renew.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Winter and spring have each their use,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And each in turn his people know;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "One kills the weeds their hearts produce,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The other makes their graces grow.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Though like dead trees awhile they seem,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yet, having life within their root,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The welcome spring’s reviving beam",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Draws forth their blossoms, leaves, and fruit.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But if the tree indeed be dead,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "It feels no change though spring return;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Its leafless, naked, barren head,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Proclaims it only fit to burn.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Dear Lord, afford our souls a spring,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thou know’st our winter has been long:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Shine forth, and warm our hearts to sing,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And thy rich grace shall be our song.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}