William Cowper
William Cowper
William Cowper was an English poet and hymnodist. One of the most popular poets of his time, Cowper changed the direction of 18th century nature poetry by writing of everyday life and scenes of the English countryside. In many ways, he was one of the forerunners of Romantic poetry. Samuel Taylor Coleridge called him "the best modern poet", whilst William Wordsworth particularly admired his poem Yardley-Oak. He was a nephew of the poet Judith Madan...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionPoet
Date of Birth26 November 1731
light giving age
A glory gilds the sacred page, Majestic like the sun, It gives a light to every age, It gives, but borrows none.
moral manners courtesy
A moral, sensible, and well-bred manWill not affront me, and no other can.
art immortality
Blest be the art that can immortalize.
heart sight play
Be it a weakness, it deserves some praise, We love the play-place of our early days; The scene is touching, and the heart is stone, That feels not at that sight, and feels at none.
men speech ambassadors
He that negotiates between God and man, As God's ambassador, the grand concerns Of judgment and of mercy, should beware Of lightness in his speech.
country talking may
Words learn'd by rote a parrot may rehearse, But talking is not always to converse, Not more distinct from harmony divine The constant creaking of a country sign.
self tree shade
We bear our shades about us; self-deprived Of other screen, the thin umbrella spread, And range an Indian waste without a tree.
heart men hands
I venerate the man whose heart is warm, Whose hands are pure, whose doctrine and whose life, Coincident, exhibit lucid proof That he is honest in the sacred cause.
blind god-works-in-mysterious-ways vain
Blind unbelief is sure to err, And scan his work in vain; God is his own interpreter, And he will make it plain.
clerks sparks preaching
There goes the parson, oh illustrious spark! And there, scarce less illustrious, goes the clerk.
success art battle
Hast thou not learnd what thou art often told, A truth still sacred, and believed of old, That no success attends on spears and swords Unblest, and that the battle is the Lords?
flower earth virtue
The only amarantine flower on earth Is virtue.
tears flow distress
When from soft love proceeds the deep distress, ah! why forbid the willing tears to flow?
today care tomorrow
The cares of today are seldom those of tomorrow.