{
 "id": "william-cowper/the-valley-of-the-shadow-of-death",
 "title": "The Valley of the Shadow of Death",
 "ordinal": "20",
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "William Cowper",
 "poet_slug": "william-cowper",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Olney Hymns",
 "book_slug": "olney-hymns",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 261,
 "container": "III Conflict",
 "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-3.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": 20,
  "n_stanzas": 5,
  "n_parts": 5,
  "longest_line_chars": 40,
  "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": [
    4,
    5
   ]
  }
 ],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "My soul is sad and much dismay’d;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "See, Lord, what legions of my foes,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With fierce Apollyon at their head,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My heavenly pilgrimage oppose!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "See from the ever-burning lake,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "How like a smoky cloud they rise!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With horrid blasts my soul they shake,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With storms of blasphemies and lies.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Their fiery arrows reach the mark,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My throbbing heart with anguish tear:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Each lights upon a kindred spark,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And finds abundant fuel there.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I hate the thought that wrongs the Lord;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ah! I would drive it from my breast,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With thy own sharp two-edged sword,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Far as the east is from the west.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Come then and chase the cruel host,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Heal the deep wounds I have received!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor let the pow’rs of darkness boast",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That I am foil’d and thou art grieved!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}