{
 "id": "william-cowper/the-sower",
 "title": "The Sower",
 "ordinal": "85",
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "William Cowper",
 "poet_slug": "william-cowper",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Olney Hymns",
 "book_slug": "olney-hymns",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 85,
 "container": "Book I On Select Texts of Scripture",
 "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-1.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": 6,
  "n_parts": 6,
  "longest_line_chars": 37,
  "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": [
    2,
    3
   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "IV",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
    3,
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   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "V",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
    4,
    5
   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "VI",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
    5,
    6
   ]
  }
 ],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Ye sons of earth, prepare the plough,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Break up your fallow ground!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The sower is gone forth to sow,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And scatter blessings round.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The seed that finds a stony soil",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Shoots forth a hasty blade;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But ill repays the sower’s toil⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Soon wither’d, scorch’d, and dead.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The thorny ground is sure to baulk",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All hopes of harvest there;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "We find a tall and sickly stalk,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But not the fruitful ear.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The beaten path and highway-side",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Receive the trust in vain;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The watchful birds the spoil divide,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And pick up all the grain.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But where the Lord of grace and power",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Has bless’d the happy field,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "How plenteous is the golden store",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The deep-wrought furrows yield!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Father of mercies, we have need",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of thy preparing grace;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Let the same hand that gives the seed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Provide a fruitful place.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}