The Life of William Cowper, Esq: Comp. from His Correspondence and Other Authentic Sources of Information; Containing Remarks on His Writings, and on the Peculiarities of His Interesting Character, Never Before PublishedKey & Biddle, 1834 - 288 pages |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
adverts affection affectionate affliction afford amiable amusement anxiety appear attention beautiful believe blank verse blessing brother cheerful choly Christian comfort correspondence Countess Spencer Cowper death degree delight depressive malady despair distress divine Eartham employed engaged esteemed expected faith feel felt following extracts Frederick of Bohemia friendship give gloomy gospel grace happy Hayley Hayley's heart hope Huntingdon Iliad interesting John Throckmorton Johnson journey kind labor Lady Hesketh least less letter live manner Mary means melan melancholy ment mercy Milton Mundesley nature never Newton occasion Olney painful Paradise Lost perhaps pleased pleasure poem poet poet's poetical poetry present prove reason received recovery religion respecting rienced scene scripture seemed spirits suffered suppose sure tender thee things thou thought tion translation of Homer truth Unwin Unwin's verse Weston WILLIAM COWPER wish write wrote
Popular passages
Page 282 - Tis liberty alone that gives the flower Of fleeting life its lustre and perfume ; And we are weeds without it. All constraint, Except what wisdom lays on evil men, Is evil : hurts the faculties, impedes Their progress in the road of science, blinds The eyesight of Discovery ; and begets, In those that suffer it, a sordid mind, Bestial, a meager intellect. unfit To be the tenant of man's noble form.
Page 31 - SAVE me, O God ; for the waters are come in unto my soul. I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing: I am come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me.
Page 41 - There, if thy Spirit touch the soul, And grace her mean abode, Oh, with what peace, and joy, and love, She communes with her God ! There like the nightingale she pours Her solitary lays ; Nor asks a witness of her song, Nor thirsts for human praise.
Page 78 - Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take, The clouds ye so much dread Are big with mercy, and shall break In blessings on your head.
Page 16 - Hovered thy spirit o'er thy sorrowing son, Wretch even then, life's journey just begun ? Perhaps thou gav'st me, though unfelt, a kiss ; Perhaps a tear, if souls can weep in bliss — Ah, that maternal smile ! it answers — Yes.
Page 255 - Could catch the sound no more : For then, by toil subdued, he drank The stifling wave, and then he sank. No poet wept him : but the page Of narrative sincere, That tells his name, his worth, his age, Is wet with Anson's tear : And tears by bards or heroes shed Alike immortalize the dead. I therefore purpose not, or dream, Descanting on his fate, To give the melancholy theme A more enduring date: But misery still delights to trace Its semblance in another's case.
Page 283 - He looks abroad into the varied field Of nature, and though poor perhaps, compared With those whose mansions glitter in his sight, Calls the delightful scenery all his own. His are the mountains, and the valleys his, And the resplendent rivers. His t...
Page 259 - YE, who with warmth the public triumph feel Of talents dignified by sacred zeal, Here, to devotion's bard devoutly just, Pay your fond tribute due to Cowper's dust ! England, exulting in his spotless fame, Ranks with her dearest sons his favourite name.
Page 255 - OBSCUREST night involved the sky, The Atlantic billows roared, When such a destined wretch as I, Washed headlong from on board, Of friends, of hope, of all bereft, His floating home for ever left. No braver chief could Albion boast Than he with whom he went, Nor ever ship left Albion's coast With warmer wishes sent. He loved them both, but both in vain, Nor him beheld, nor her again. Not long beneath the whelming brine...
Page 46 - Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified.