William Cowper

"Variety is the spice of life."

"No dancing bear was so genteel Or half so dégagé."

"Absence from whom we love is worse than death, And frustrate hope severer than despair."

"Damned below Judas; more abhorred than he was."

"Man disobeys, and deity disowns me."

"But oars alone can ne'er prevail To reach the distant coast; The breath of Heaven must swell the sail, Or all the toil is lost."

"Oh! I could thresh his old jacket till I made his pension jingle in his pockets."

"Reasoning at every step he treads, Man yet mistakes his way, While meaner things, whom instinct leads, Are rarely known to stray."

"Fate steals along with silent tread, Found oftenest in what least we dread, Frowns in the storm with angry brow, But in the sunshine strikes the blow."

"'Tis Providence alone secures In every change both mine and yours."

"Regions Caesar never knew Thy posterity shall sway; Where his eagles never flew, None invincible as they."

"Ruffians, pitiless as proud, Heaven awards the vengeance due; Empire is on us bestowed, Shame and ruin wait for you."

"Sweet stream that winds through yonder glade, Apt emblem of a virtuous maid Silent and chaste she steals along, Far from the world's gay busy throng: With gentle yet prevailing force, Intent upon her destined course; Graceful and useful all she does, Blessing and blest where'er she goes; Pure-bosom'd as that watery glass, And Heaven reflected in her face."

"Candid, and generous, and just, Boys care but little whom they trust, An error soon corrected— For who but learns in riper years That man, when smoothest he appears Is most to be suspected?"

"Thus neither the praise nor the blame is our own."

"Grief is itself a med'cine."

"Canst thou, and honour’d with a Christian name, Buy what is woman-born, and feel no shame? Trade in the blood of innocence, and plead Expedience as a warrant for the deed? So may the wolf, whom famine has made bold To quit the forest and invade the fold: So may the ruffian, who with ghostly glide, Dagger in hand, steals close to your bedside; Not he, but his emergence forced the door, He found it inconvenient to be poor."

"When one that holds communion with the skies Has fill'd his urn where these pure waters rise, And once more mingles with us meaner things, 'Tis e'en as if an angel shook his wings."

"True Charity, a plant divinely nurs'd."

"Let Charity forgive me a mistake, That zeal, not vanity, has chanced to make, And spare the poet for his subject’s sake."

"Thousands, careless of the damning sin, Kiss the book's outside who ne'er look within."

"The man that hails you Tom or Jack, And proves, by thumping on your back, His sense of your great merit, Is such a friend that one had need Be very much his friend indeed To pardon or to bear it."

"Men deal with life as children with their play, Who first misuse, then cast their toys away."

"Could he with reason murmur at his case, Himself sole author of his own disgrace?"

"And differing judgments serve but to declare, That truth lies somewhere, if we knew but where."

"A knave, when tried on honesty's plain rule, And, when by that of reason, a mere fool."

"Oh, fond attempt to give a deathless lot To names ignoble, born to be forgot!"

"There goes the parson, O illustrious spark! And there, scarce less illustrious, goes the clerk."

"He has no hope that never had a fear."

"Just knows, and knows no more, her Bible true,— A truth the brilliant Frenchman never knew."

"The sounding jargon of the schools."

"But what is man in his own proud esteem? Hear him, himself the poet and the theme; A monarch clothed with majesty and awe, His mind his kingdom and his will his law."

"Old Tiney, the surliest of his kind! Who, nursed with tender care, And to domestic bounds confined, Was still a wild Jack hare.Though duly from my hand he took His pittance every night, He did it with a jealous look; And, when he could, would bite."

"Our severest winter, commonly called the spring."

"I believe no man was ever scolded out of his sins."

"Mr. Grenville squeezed me by the hand again, kissed the ladies, and withdrew. He kissed likewise the maid in the kitchen, and seemed upon the whole a most loving, kissing, kind-hearted gentleman."

"The poplars are felled, farewell to the shade And the whispering sound of the cool colonnade."

"An honest man, close-buttoned to the chin, Broadcloth without, and a warm heart within."

"But truths on which depends our main concern, That 'tis our shame and mistery not to learn, Shine by the side of every path we tread With such a luster, he that runs may read."

"Public schools 'tis public folly feeds."

"The parson knows enough who knows a duke."

"Behold your bishop! well he plays his part, Christian in name, and infidel in heart, Ghostly in office, earthly in his plan, A slave at court, elsewhere a lady’s man. Dumb as a senator, and as a priest A piece of mere church furniture at best."

"Tenants of life’s middle state, Securely placed between the small and great."

"A worm is in the bud of youth, And at the root of age."

"Toll for the brave — The brave! that are no more; All sunk beneath the wave, Fast by their native shore!"

"And still to love, though prest with ill, In wintry age to feel no chill, With me is to be lovely still, My Mary!"

"Visits are insatiable devourers of time, and fit only for those who, if they did not that, would do nothing."

"My dog! what remedy remains, Since, teach you all I can, I see you, after all my pains, So much resemble man!"

"Beware of desp'rate steps! The darkest day (Live till tomorrow) will have passed away."

"Misses! the tale that I relate This lesson seems to carry — Choose not alone a proper mate, But proper time to marry."

"I shall not ask Jean Jacques Rousseau, If birds confabulate or no."

"Thy morning bounties ere I left my home, The biscuit, or confectionary plum."

"Me howling winds drive devious, tempest-tossed, Sails ripped, seams op'ning wide, and compass lost."

"Oh that those lips had language! Life has pass'd With me but roughly since I heard thee last."

"The son of parents pass'd into the skies."

"Misery still delights to trace Its semblance in another's case."

"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."

"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!"

"What peaceful hours I once enjoyed! How sweet their memory still! But they have left an aching void The world can never fill."

"And Satan trembles when he sees The weakest saint upon his knees."

"God moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform; He plants his footsteps in the sea, And rides upon the storm."

"Deep in unfathomable mines Of never failing skill, He treasures up his bright designs, And works his sovereign will."

"Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take, The clouds ye so much dread, Are big with mercy, and shall break In blessings on your head."

"Behind a frowning providence He hides a smiling face."

"His purposes will ripen fast, Unfolding every hour; The bud may have a bitter taste, But sweet will be the flower."

"Blind unbelief is sure to err, And scan his work in vain; God is his own interpreter, And he will make it plain."

"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."

"Hark, my soul! it is the Lord; 'Tis thy (Saviour, hear his word; Jesus speaks, and speaks to thee: "Say, poor sinner, lov'st thou me?""

"Glory, built On selfish principles, is shame and guilt."

"Is base in kind, and born to be a slave."

"As if the world and they were hand and glove."

"Admirals extolled for standing still, Or doing nothing with a deal of skill."

"Thus happiness depends, as Nature shows, Less on exterior things than most suppose."

"Freedom has a thousand charms to show, That slaves, howe'er contented, never know."

"Stamps God's own name upon a lie just made, To turn a penny in the way of trade."

"I play with syllables and sport in song."

"Manner is all in all, whate'er is writ, The substitute for genius, sense, and wit."

"Ages elapsed ere Homer's lamp appear'd, And ages ere the Mantuan swan was heard: To carry nature lengths unknown before, To give a Milton birth, ask'd ages more."

"Elegant as simplicity, and warm As ecstasy."

"Low ambition and the thirst of praise."

"But he (his musical finesse was such, So nice his ear, so delicate his touch) Made poetry a mere mechanic art, And ev'ry warbler has his tune by heart."

"Nature, exerting an unwearied power, Forms, opens, and gives scent to every flower; Spreads the fresh verdure of the field, and leads The dancing Naiads through the dewy meads."

"Lights of the world, and stars of human race."

"Oh, laugh or mourn with me the rueful jest, A cassock’d huntsman and a fiddling priest!"

"Himself a wanderer from the narrow way, His silly sheep, what wonder if they stray?"

"Remorse, the fatal egg by Pleasure laid."

"As creeping ivy clings to wood or stone, And hides the ruin that it feeds upon; So sophistry cleaves close to and protects Sin’s rotten trunk, concealing its defects."

"How much a dunce that has been sent to roam Excels a dunce that has been kept at home."

"How shall I speak thee, or thy power address, Thou god of our idolatry, the Press? By thee religion, liberty, and laws, Exert their influence and advance their cause: By thee worse plagues than Pharaoh’s land befell, Diffused, make Earth the vestibule of Hell; Thou fountain, at which drink the good and wise, Thou ever-bubbling spring of endless lies; Like Eden’s dread probationary tree, Knowledge of good and evil is from thee!"

"No wild enthusiast ever yet could rest, Till half mankind were like himself possess'd."

"Laugh at all you trembled at before."

"'Tis hard if all is false that I advance, A fool must now and then be right by chance."

"He would not, with a peremptory tone, Assert the nose upon his face his own."

"A moral, sensible, and well-bred man Will not affront me, and no other can."

"A tale should be judicious, clear, succinct; The language plain, and incidents well link’d; Tell not as new what ev’ry body knows; And, new or old, still hasten to a close."

"The pipe, with solemn interposing puff, Makes half a sentence at a time enough; The dozing sages drop the drowsy strain, Then pause, and puff—and speak, and pause again."

"Pernicious weed! whose scent the fair annoys, Unfriendly to society's chief joys, Thy worst effect is banishing for hours The sex whose presence civilizes ours."

"I cannot talk with civet in the room, A fine puss-gentleman that's all perfume."

"The solemn fop; significant and budge; A fool with judges, amongst fools a judge."

"His wit invites you by his looks to come, But when you knock it never is at home."

"I pity bashful men, who feel the pain Of fancied scorn and undeserved disdain, And bear the marks upon a blushing face, Of needless shame, and self-impos'd disgrace."

"Our wasted oil unprofitably burns, Like hidden lamps in old sepulchral urns."

"That good diffused may more abundant grow."

"But that disease when soberly defined Is the false fire of an o'erheated mind."

"But Conversation, choose what theme we may, And chiefly when religion leads the way, Should flow, like waters after summer show'rs, Not as if raised by mere mechanic powers."

"The disencumbered Atlas of the state."

"He likes the country, but in truth must own, Most likes it, when he studies it in town."

"A business with an income at its heels Furnishes always oil for its own wheels."

"Absence of occupation is not rest, A mind quite vacant is a mind distressed."

"An idler is a watch that wants both hands; As useless when it goes as when it stands."

"Built God a church, and laugh'd his word to scorn."

"Philologists, who chase A panting syllable through time and space, Start it at home, and hunt it in the dark, To Gaul, to Greece, and into Noah's ark."

"Till authors hear at length, one general cry, Tickle and entertain us, or we die!The loud demand from year to year the same, Beggars invention and makes fancy lame."

"I praise the Frenchman, his remark was shrewd — How sweet, how passing sweet, is solitude! But grant me still a friend in my retreat Whom I may whisper — solitude is sweet."

"I am monarch of all I survey, My right there is none to dispute; From the center all round to the sea I am lord of the fowl and the brute."

"O solitude! where are the charms That sages have seen in thy face? Better dwell in the midst of alarms Than reign in this horrible place."

"I am out of humanity's reach. I must finish my journey alone, Never hear the sweet music of speech; I start at the sound of my own."

"Society friendship and love Divinely bestow'd upon man, O had I the wings of a dove How soon I would taste you again!"

"Religion! what treasure untold Resides in that heavenly word!"

"My friends, do they now and then send A wish or a thought after me? O tell me I yet have a friend, Though a friend I am never to see."

"There is mercy in every place, And mercy, encouraging thought! Gives even affliction a grace And reconciles man to his lot."

"But the sound of the church-going bell These valleys and rocks never heard; Ne'er sigh'd at the sound of a knell, Or smiled when a Sabbath appear'd."

"How fleet is a glance of the mind! Compared with the speed of its flight The tempest itself lags behind, And the swift-winged arrows of light."

"John Gilpin was a citizen Of credit and renown, A train-band captain eke was he, Of famous London town."

"My sister, and my sister’s child, Myself, and children three, Will fill the chaise; so you must ride On horseback after we."

"O'erjoyed was he to find That, though on pleasure she was bent, She had a frugal mind."

"The dogs did bark, the children screamed, Up flew the windows all; And every soul cried out, "Well done!" As loud as he could bawl."

"A hat not much the worse for wear."

"Now let us sing — Long live the king, And Gilpin, long live he; And, when he next doth ride abroad, May I be there to see!"

"Forced from home and all its pleasures Afric's coast I left forlorn, To increase a stranger's treasures O'er the raging billows borne. Men from England bought and sold me, Paid my price in paltry gold; But, though slave they have enrolled me, Minds are never to be sold."

"Fleecy locks and black complexion Cannot forfeit nature's claim; Skins may differ, but affection Dwells in white and black the same."

"Deem our nation brutes no longer, Till some reason ye shall find Worthier of regard and stronger Than the colour of our kind."

"Prove that you have human feelings, Ere you proudly question ours!"

"Survivor sole, and hardly such, of all that once lived here"

"It seems idolatry with some excuse, When our forefather Druids in their oaks Imagined sanctity."

"Thou wast a bauble once; a cup and ball, Which babes might play with; and the thievish jay Seeking her food, with ease might have purloined The auburn nut that held thee, swallowing down Thy yet close-folded latitude of boughs And all thine embryo vastness at a gulp. But fate thy growth decreed."

"So Fancy dreams. Disprove it, if ye can, Ye reasoners broad awake, whose busy search Of argument, employed too oft amiss, Sifts half the pleasures of short life away!"

"I will venture to assert, that a just translation of any ancient poet in rhyme is impossible. No human ingenuity can be equal to the task of closing every couplet with sounds homotonous, expressing at the same time the full sense, and only the full sense of his original."

"As when around the clear bright moon, the stars Shine in full splendor, and the winds are hush'd, The groves, the mountain-tops, the headland-heights Stand all apparent, not a vapor streaks The boundless blue, but ether open'd wide All glitters, and the shepherd's heart is cheer'd."

"My soul Shall bear that also; for, by practice taught, I have learned patience, having much endured."

"He that holds fast the golden mean, And lives contentedly between The little and the great, Feels not the wants that pinch the poor, Nor plagues that haunt the rich man's door."

"There is a bird who by his coat, And by the hoarseness of his note, Might be supposed a crow."

"He sees that this great roundabout The world, with all its motley rout, Church, army, physic, law, Its customs and its businesses, Is no concern at all of his, And says—what says he?—Caw."

"A kick that scarce would move a horse May kill a sound divine."

"And the tear that is wiped with a little address, May be follow'd perhaps by a smile."

"The path of sorrow, and that path alone, Leads to the land where sorrow is unknown."

"For 'tis a truth well known to most, That whatsoever thing is lost, We seek it, ere it come to light, In every cranny but the right."

"But strive still to be a man before your mother."

"Ever let the Fancy roam, Pleasure never is at home."

"No man can be a patriot on an empty stomach."

"The innocent seldom find an uncomfortable pillow."

"The mind of Cowper was, so to speak, naturally terrestrial. If a man wishes for a nice appreciation of the details of time and sense, let him consult Cowper's miscellaneous letters. Each simple event of every day—each petty object of external observation or inward suggestion, is there chronicled with a fine and female fondness, a wise and happy faculty, let us say, of deriving a gentle happiness from the tranquil and passing hour."

"Cowper, writing after Pope, had the advantage of knowing what to avoid; but he was misled by a false analogy, and seeing in Milton a great epic poet, austere in his manner and repellent of meretricious ornament, attempted to force on Homer a style which, rightly considered, is almost as artificial as Virgil's, and which, moreover, he was himself unequal to wield."

"Have you ever read the letters of the poet Cowper? He had nothing—literally nothing—to tell anyone about; private life in a sleepy country town where Evangelical distrust of "the world" denied him even such miserable society as the place would have afforded. And yet one reads a whole volume of his letters with unfailing interest. How his tooth came loose at dinner, how he made a hutch for a tame hare, what he is doing about his cucumbers—all this he makes one follow as if the fate of empires hung on it."

"We can not but admire a man who, subject to a lifelong illness that inflicted with frequent recurrence an intense mental agony, fought persistently against his weakness—at times their master, at times a victim to their influence. Still he did not flinch even under this torture, but held his pen and pressed it to write in a cause which was distinctly unpopular. Cowper was preeminently a poet of feelings; he may have been melancholy, but he pointed out to his readers how they were themselves subjects of emotion. He owed a debt to Providence, and he rebuked the people for their follies. In doing so he was regardless of his own fame and of their opprobrium. He gave them tolerable advice, and strove to awaken them from their apathy to a sense of their duty towards their neighbours. First of poets, since the days of Milton, to champion the sacredness of religion, he was the forerunner of a new school that disliked the political satires of the disciples of Pope, and aimed at borrowing for their lines of song from the simple beauties of a perfect nature."

"In the ‘Task,’ his playfulness, his exquisite appreciation of simple natural beauties, and his fine moral perceptions found full expression. Cowper now revealed himself in his natural character. He speaks as the gentle recluse, describes his surroundings playfully and pathetically, and is no longer declaiming from the rostrum or pulpit of the old-fashioned satirist."

"The pathos of some minor poems is unsurpassable. Cowper is attractive whenever he shows his genuine self."

"Wer nicht mit mir ist, der ist wider mich."

"Now let us sing, long live the king."

"I would not enter on my list of friends (Though graced with polish'd manners and fine sense, Yet wanting sensibility) the man Who needlessly sets foot upon a worm. An inadvertent step may crush the snail That crawls at evening in the public path; But he that has humanity, forewarned, Will tread aside, and let the reptile live."