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
finds fools idle wisdom wishes
In idle wishes fools supinely stay;Be there a will, -- and wisdom finds a way.
heaven held likeness
Heaven held his hand, the likeness must be true.
exterior happiness less nature suppose
Happiness depends, as Nature shows, Less on exterior things than most suppose
fleet glance
How fleet is a glance of the mind!
busy calls various whom
How various his employments, whom the world / Calls idle; and who justly, in return, / Esteems that busy world an idler too!
intervals music soft village
How soft the music of those village bellsFalling at intervals upon the earIn cadence sweet!
cannot fine talk
I cannot talk with civet in the room,A fine puss-gentleman that's all perfume.
monarch none
I am monarch of all I survey,My right there is none to dispute.
contest dust great involves learned
Great contest follows, and much learned dust / Involves the combatants.
domestic happiness paradise survived thou
Domestic happiness, thou only blissOf Paradise that has survived the fall!
trade
Doing good, disinterested good, is not our trade.
knows lawyer shifting side
Then, shifting his side (as a lawyer knows how).
heaven noticed scorned though
Not scorned in Heaven, though little noticed here.
adopt smiles sparing style teacher
Once more I would adopt the graver style - a teacher should be sparing of his smile.