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
blind god-works-in-mysterious-ways vain
Blind unbelief is sure to err, And scan his work in vain; God is his own interpreter, And he will make it plain.
punishment hands sin
Sin let loose speaks punishment at hand.
pride men devil
God made bees, and bees made honey, God made man, and man made money, Pride made the devil, and the devil made sin; So God made a cole-pit to put the devil in.
moral manners courtesy
A moral, sensible, and well-bred manWill not affront me, and no other can.
sleep slavery fans
I would not have a slave to till my ground, To carry me, to fan me while I sleep, And tremble when I wake, for all the wealth That sinews bought and sold have ever earn'd.
sports reading giving
The mind, relaxing into needful sport, Should turn to writers of an abler sort, Whose wit well managed, and whose classic style, Give truth a lustre, and make wisdom smile.
golden truth-is girdles
Truth is the golden girdle of the globe.
despair purpose purses
Most satirists are indeed a public scourge; Their mildest physic is a farrier's purge; Their acrid temper turns, as soon as stirr'd, The milk of their good purpose all to curd. Their zeal begotten, as their works rehearse, By lean despair upon an empty purse.
celestial fire pregnant
. . . words, pregnant with celestial fire.
beneath blood drawn filled fountain guilty lose
There is a fountain filled with blood / Drawn from Emmanuel's veins; / And sinners, plunged beneath that flood, / Lose all their guilty stains.
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.
english-poet wisdom
Wisdom is humble that he knows no more.
lies lies-and-lying silent
When this poor, lisping, stammering tongue/ Lies silent in the grave.