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
hidden oil wasted
Our wasted oil unprofitably burns,Like hidden lamps in old sepulchral urns.
business furnishes income oil wheels
A business with a income at its heels, furnishes always oil for its own wheels
celestial fire pregnant
. . . words, pregnant with celestial fire.
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.
bosom egg fatal laid nest pleasure
Remorse, the fatal egg by Pleasure laid / In every bosom where her nest is made.
caesar knew posterity regions shall thy
Regions Caesar never knew / Thy posterity shall sway.
bred gratify hope indulgent law profession rather success
I was bred to the law, a profession to which I was never much inclined, and in which I engaged, rather because I was desirous to gratify a most indulgent father, than because I had any hope of success in it myself.
genius manner substitute whatever wit
Manner is all in all whatever is writ, the substitute for genius sense and wit
grown shrewd trust wise
Patriots are grown too shrewd to be sincere, And we too wise to trust them
fountain gain heroic liberal men stream
Some men make gain a fountain whence proceedsA stream of liberal and heroic deeds.
alike deserted judgment sin
My sin and judgment are alike peculiar. I am a castaway, deserted and condemned.
enter fine foot list manners polished sets wanting
I would not enter on my list of friends / (Though graced with polished manners and fine sense, / Yet wanting sensibility) the man / Who needlessly sets foot upon a worm.
crush enter evening foot list public sets snail step tread
I would not enter in my list of friends, Who needlessly sets foot upon a worm. An inadvertent step may crush the snail That crawls at evening in the public path, But he has the humanity, forewarned, Will tread aside, and let the reptile live.