William Cowper: Selected Poems

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Psychology Press, 2003 - 144 páginas

The poems of William Cowper (1731-1800) are best known outside their literary context, as hymns or half-remembered popular ballads. This selection reveals the qualities that have made Cowper's work enduringly loved: his gentle humor and detailed, delighted observations of the incidentals of everyday life, his intimate, conversational tone, his spiritual hunger. Beneath Cowper's quiet gratitude for everyday pleasures, though, is a darker sense of loss, a longing for stability and calm. His sense of the healing and life-affirming power of poetry gives them a profound humanity. Nick Rhodes' selection includes the finest of the short poems and substantial extracts from Cowper's longer works, including The Task, the poem from which the Romantic poets took their bearings.

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Índice

Introduction
7
Select Bibliography
21
from Retirement
27
from Olney Hymns 17711772
33
On the Loss of The Royal George
40
On the Death of Mrs Throckmortons Bullfinch
51
The Colubriad
57
To The Nightingale
64
To Mary
74
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William Cowper is an English poet whose work heavily influenced the Romantic poets. He was born in Hertfordshire, England, November 15, 1731. His father was a clergyman. His mother claimed descent from the poet John Donne. After she died when he was only six, Cowper entered a boarding school and later attended Westminster School in London. Cowper later studied with a lawyer to satisfy his father. Cowper suffered from mental illness at various times throughout his life and spent time in an asylum. His first attack came after he was nominated for a clerkship in the House of Lords. The offer was withdrawn after Cowper attempted suicide. Cowper was convinced that his madness was retribution from an angry God against whom he had unforgivably sinned. Cowper experienced at least two more major attacks of madness, one of which frustrated his only plans to marry, leading Cowper to the conviction that he was eternally damned. He sought escape from such a depressing prospect in all kinds of innocent activities, including writing poetry. With John Newton, a curate who helped Cowper recover from his first attack, Cowper composed Olney Hymns. These included God Moves in a Mysterious Way and O For a Closer Walk With God. In 1782, The Poems of William Cowper were published. His greatest contribution is The Task. Cowper died April 25, 1800.

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