Task, The

The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature | 2003 | 700+ words | Copyright

Task, The, a poem in six books by Cowper, published 1785.

When Cowper's friend Lady Austen (whom he met in 1781) suggested to him the sofa in his room as the subject of a poem in blank verse, the poet set about ‘the task’. Its six books are entitled ‘The Sofa’, ‘The Time-piece’, ‘The Garden’, ‘The Winter Evening’, ‘The Winter Morning Walk’, and ‘The Winter Walk at Noon’. Cowper opens with a mock-heroic account of the evolution of the sofa and thence digresses to description, reflection, and opinion. The poem stresses the delights of a retired life; describes the poet's own search for peace; and evokes the pleasures of gardening, winter evenings by the fire, etc. The moral passages condemn blood sports, cards, and other diversions; the poet manifests tenderness not only for his pet hare, but even for worms and snails.

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MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Task, The." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. 13 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Task, The." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. (February 13, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O54-TaskThe.html

MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Task, The." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Retrieved February 13, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O54-TaskThe.html

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