{
 "id": "william-cowper/wisdom",
 "title": "Wisdom",
 "ordinal": "52",
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "William Cowper",
 "poet_slug": "william-cowper",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Olney Hymns",
 "book_slug": "olney-hymns",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 52,
 "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": 32,
  "n_stanzas": 4,
  "n_parts": 4,
  "longest_line_chars": 33,
  "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,
    4
   ]
  }
 ],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Ere God had built the mountains,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or raised the fruitful hills,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Before he fill’d the fountains",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That feed the running rills,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "In me, from everlasting,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The wonderful I am",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Found pleasures never wasting,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And Wisdom is my name.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "When, like a tent to dwell in,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He spread the skies abroad,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And swathed about the swelling",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of ocean’s mighty flood,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "He wrought by weight and measure;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And I was with him then;⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Myself the Father’s pleasure,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And mine the sons of men.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Thus Wisdom’s words discover",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thy glory and thy grace,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Thou everlasting lover",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of our unworthy race!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Thy gracious eye survey’d us",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ere stars were seen above:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "In wisdom thou hast made us,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And died for us in love.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And couldst thou be delighted",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With creatures such as we!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Who, when we saw thee slighted",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And nail’d thee to a tree!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Unfathomable wonder,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And mystery divine,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The voice that speaks in thunder,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Says, “Sinner, I am thine!”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}