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
heaven noticed scorned though
Not scorned in Heaven, though little noticed here.
cheap salad wholesome
A cheap but wholesome salad from the brook.
business furnishes income oil wheels
A business with a income at its heels, furnishes always oil for its own wheels
ah might since sky twentieth year
The twentieth year is well-nigh past, / Since first our sky was overcast; / Ah would that this might be the last! / My Mary!
cool farewell sound whispering
The poplars are felled, farewell to the shade,/ And the whispering sound of the cool colonnade!
pleasure poetic poets
There is a pleasure in poetic painsWhich only poets know.
celestial fire pregnant
. . . words, pregnant with celestial fire.
dearest help idol tear throne thy whatever worship
The dearest idol I have known, Whatever that idol be, Help me to tear it from thy throne , And worship only thee.
english-poet wisdom
Wisdom is humble that he knows no more.
bell repair unto
To-morrow is our wedding-day, / And we will then repair / Unto the Bell at Edmonton, / All in a chaise and pair.
great stir tis
Tis pleasant, through the loopholes of retreat, / To peep at such a world; to see the stir / Of the great Babel, and not feel the crowd.
chance false fool fools-and-foolishness hard tis
Tis hard if all is false that I advance, A fool must now and then be right, by chance
land leads path sorrow
The path of sorrow and that path alone, leads to a land where sorrow is unknown.
dread drink endless evil god good spring thou
Thou god of our idolatry, the press. . . .Thou fountain, at which drink the good and wise;Thou ever-bubbling spring of endless lies;Like Eden's dread probationary tree,Knowledge of good and evil is from thee.