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
caesar knew posterity regions shall thy
Regions Caesar never knew / Thy posterity shall sway.
blood church dear dying god lose precious shall sin thy
Dear dying Lamb, Thy precious blood shall never lose its powerTill all the ransomed church of God be saved, to sin no more.
backward beast received thy till
My God, till I received thy stroke, / How like a beast was I! / So unaccustomed to the yoke, / So backward to comply.
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.
both equals fame milton rome sound thy
Greece, sound thy Homer's, Rome thy Virgil's name, / But England's Milton equals both in fame.
art magic themselves thy wound
All thy threads with magic art / Have wound themselves about this heart.
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.
hidden oil wasted
Our wasted oil unprofitably burns,Like hidden lamps in old sepulchral urns.
bosom egg fatal laid nest pleasure
Remorse, the fatal egg by Pleasure laid / In every bosom where her nest is made.
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