This article is about
William Cowper, the poet. For other people with the same name see
Cowper.
Portrait of William Cowper attributed to Romney.
William Cowper (pronounced "Cooper", IPA: /ˈkuːpɚ/) (November 26, 1731 – April 25, 1800) [1] 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.
He suffered from periods of severe depression, and although he found refuge in a
fervent evangelical Christianity, the source of his
much-loved hymns, he often experienced doubt and fears that he was doomed to eternal
damnation. However, his religious motivations and association with John Newton (who
wrote the hymn "Amazing Grace") led to much of the poetry for which he is best
remembered in the popular mind.
Life of Cowper
He was born in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire,
England in 1731. After education at Westminster School, he was articled to Mr. Chapman, solicitor, of
Ely Place, Holborn, in order to be trained for a career in
law. During this time, he spent his leisure at the home of his uncle Ashley Cowper, and there fell in love with his cousin
Theodora, whom he wished to marry. But as James Croft, who in 1825 first published the poems Cowper
addressed to Theodora, wrote, "her father, from an idea that the union of persons so nearly related was improper, refused to
accede to the wishes of his daughter and nephew." This refusal left Cowper distraught.
In 1763 he was offered a Clerkship of Journals in the House of
Lords, but broke under the strain of the approaching examination and experienced a period of insanity. At this time he tried three times to commit suicide and was sent to
Dr. Cotton's asylum at St. Albans for recovery. His poem beginning "Hatred and vengeance, my
eternal portions" (sometimes referred to as "Sapphics") was written in the aftermath of his suicide attempt.
After recovering, he settled at Huntingdon with a retired clergyman named Morley Unwin and
his wife Mary. Cowper grew to be on such good terms with the Unwin family that he went to live in their house, and moved with
them to Olney, where John Newton, a former
slave trader who had repented and devoted his life to the gospel, was curate. Not long
afterwards, Morley Unwin was killed in a fall from his horse, but Cowper continued to live in the Unwin home and became extremely
attached to Mary Unwin.
At Olney, Newton invited Cowper to contribute to a hymnbook that Newton was compiling. The
resulting volume known as Olney Hymns was not published until 1779 but includes hymns such
as "Praise for the Fountain Opened" (beginning "There is a fountain fill'd with blood") and "Light Shining out of Darkness"
(beginning "God moves in a mysterious way") which remain some of Cowper's most familiar verses. Several of Cowper's hymns, as
well as others originally published in the "Olney Hymns," are today preserved in the Sacred
Harp.
In 1773, Cowper, now engaged to marry Mrs. Unwin, experienced a new attack of insanity,
imagining not only that he was condemned to hell eternally, but that God was commanding him to make a sacrifice of his own life.
This attack broke off the engagement, but Mary Unwin took care of him with great devotion, and after a year he began again to
recover. In 1779, after Newton had left Olney to go to London, Cowper started to
write further poetry. Mary Unwin, wanting to keep Cowper's mind occupied, suggested that he write on the subject of The
Progress of Error, and after writing his satire of this name he wrote seven others. All of
them were published in 1782 under the title Poems by William Cowper, of the Inner Temple,
Esq..
Crazy Kate, illustration for Cowper's
The Task by
Henry Fuseli (1806-1807).
The year before this publication, Cowper met a sophisticated and charming widow named Lady Austen who served as a new impetus
to his poetry. Cowper himself tells of the genesis of what some have considered his most substantial work, The Task, in
his "Advertisement" to the original edition of 1785:
"...A lady, fond of blank verse, demanded a poem of that kind from the author, and gave him the SOFA for a subject. He obeyed;
and, having much leisure, connected another subject with it; and, pursuing the train of thought to which his situation and turn
of mind led him, brought forth at length, instead of the trifle which he at first intended, a serious affair--a Volume!"
In the same volume Cowper also printed "The Diverting History of John Gilpin", a notable
piece of comic verse.
Cowper and Mary Unwin moved to Weston in 1786 and shortly before this became close with his
cousin Harriet (Theodora's sister), now Lady Hesketh. During this period he started his translations of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey into blank
verse, and his versions (published in 1791) were the most significant English renderings of these
epic poems since those of Alexander Pope earlier in
the century, although later critics have faulted Cowper's Homer for being too much in the mold of John Milton.
Mary Unwin died in 1796, plunging Cowper into a gloom from which he never fully recovered. He
did, however, continue revising his Homer for a second edition of his translation, and, aside from writing the powerful and bleak
poem "The Castaway", penned some English translations of Greek verse and turned some of the Fables of John Gay into Latin.
Cowper was seized with dropsy in the spring of 1800 and died in
East Dereham, Norfolk.
Major works
Familiar quotations from Cowper
GOD moves in a mysterious way,
His wonders to perform;
He plants his footsteps in the sea,
And rides upon the storm.
- Olney Hymns (1779)--'Light Shining out of Darkness'
There is a fountain fill'd with blood
Drawn from EMMANUEL's veins;
And sinners, plung'd beneath that flood,
Lose all their guilty stains.
- Olney Hymns (1779)--'Praise for the Fountain Opened'
Oh! for a closer walk with GOD,
A calm and heav'nly frame;
A light to shine upon the road
That leads me to the Lamb!
- Olney Hymns (1779)--'Walking with God'
God made the country, and man made the town.
- The Task (1785)--'The Sofa' (Book I, line 749)
There is a pleasure in poetic pains
Which only poets know.
- The Task (1785)--'The Timepiece' (Book II, lines 285-6)
Variety's the very spice of life,
That gives it all its flavour.
- The Task (1785)--'The Timepiece' (Book II, lines 606-7)
I am monarch of all I survey,
My right there is none to dispute;
From the centre all round to the sea,
I am lord of the fowl and the brute.
- 'Verses Supposed to be Written by Alexander Selkirk' (1782), lines 1-4
No voice divine the storm allay'd,
No light propitious shone;
When, snatch'd from all effectual aid,
We perish'd, each alone;
But I beneath a rougher sea,
And whelmed in deeper gulphs than he.
- "The Castaway" (1799), lines 61-66
'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;
To hear the roar she sends through all her gates
At a safe distance, where the dying sound
Falls a soft murmur on the uninjur'd ear.
- The Task (1785)--'The Winter Evening' (Book IV, lines 88-93)
Footnotes
- ^ Date of birth is given in New Style (Gregorian calendar). Old Style date is November
15, 1731. (1911 Encyclopedia Britannica)
References
- Harold Child, "William Cowper", in Ward & Trent, et al. The Cambridge History of English and American Literature.
New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1907–21. As given at Bartleby.com. (Some biographical data utilized.)
- H.S. Milford, The Complete Poetical Works of William Cowper. London: Oxford University Press, 1913. No ISBN.
("Chronological Table" on pp. xxiv-xxx heavily utilized for biographical data.)
External links
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Works by Cowper
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