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
pain poetry poetic
There is a pleasure in poetic pains / Which only poets know.
easter atheist earth
The Cross! There, and there only (though the deist rave, and the atheist, if Earth bears so base a slave); There and there only, is the power to save.
cheer fall fire
Now stir the fire, and close the shutters fast, Let fall the curtains, wheel the sofa around, And while the bubbling and loud-hissing urn Throws up a steamy column, and the cups That cheer but not inebriate, wait on each, So let us welcome peaceful evening in
cheer tea-drinking cups-of-tea
Tea - the cups that cheer but not inebriate.
prayer devil saint
Satan trembles when he sees the weakest saint upon their knees.
book talismans spells
Books are not seldom talismans and spells.
men political politics
No man can be a patriot on an empty stomach.
mistake men intuition
Reasoning at every step he treads, Man yet mistakes his way, Whilst meaner things, whom instinct leads, Are rarely known to stray.
music heart air
There is in souls a sympathy with sounds: And as the mind is pitch'd the ear is pleased With melting airs, or martial, brisk or grave; Some chord in unison with what we hear Is touch'd within us, and the heart replies.
innocence innocent uncomfortable
The innocent seldom find an uncomfortable pillow.
life children men
Men deal with life as children with their play, Who first misuse, then cast their toys away.
tasks venture sound
I will venture to assert, that a just translation of any ancient poet in rhyme is impossible. No human ingenuity can be equal to the task of closing every couplet with sounds homotonous, expressing at the same time the full sense, and only the full sense of his original.
tree peculiar hue
No tree in all the grove but has its charms, Though each its hue peculiar.
heaven toil lost
But oars alone can ne'er prevail To reach the distant coast; The breath of Heaven must swell the sail, Or all the toil is lost.