William Cowper

The most characteristic work of the English poet William Cowper (1731-1800) is gentle and pious in mood and deals with retired rural life. He often anticipated the attitudes and subjects of romantic and Victorian authors.

William Cowper was born on Nov. 26, 1731; his mother was a descendant of the poet John Donne. He studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1754. A love affair with his cousin ended unhappily in 1756, largely because the girl's father was concerned over Cowper's mental stability. In 1763 Cowper suffered a complete nervous breakdown as a consequence of worry about an examination he was to take for a clerkship in the House of Lords. After several attempts at suicide he was committed to a sanatorium.

After recuperating, Cowper spent his life under the care of several friends and patrons, notably Mrs. Mary Unwin (a clergyman's widow), the evangelical clergyman John Newton (whose religious zeal probably did not aid Cowper's troubled mind), and Cowper's cousin Lady Hesketh. In collaboration with Newton, Cowper wrote numerous hymns. His life after 1765 was one of rustic retirement, punctuated by severe breakdowns in 1773, 1787, and 1794. His intermittent mental breakdowns were generally characterized by severe religious gloom and often by a sense that he was irrevocably damned.

Cowper's most significant literary work was done in the last 2 decades of his life. In 1780-1781 he wrote a series of reflective essays in couplets; in 1782 he composed the immensely popular "John Gilpin's Ride," in which he burlesques the heroic ballad. In 1783 Cowper began his curious long poem The Task (published 1785), which begins with a mock-elevated disquisition on the historical evolution of the sofa from the humble three-legged stool (a lady had suggested the topic in response to Cowper's complaint that he lacked a subject for blank verse). It then treats a multitude of descriptive and reflective subjects and is probably Cowper's most typical poem. In it quiet meditation is mingled with atmospheric description of simple rural life and placid natural scenes.

Cowper's translation of Homer (1784-1791) demonstrated his opposition to what he considered the artificial elevatedness of Alexander Pope's version. In 1799 Cowper wrote the somber poem "The Castaway;" like the earlier "Lines Supposed to Be Written by Alexander Selkirk" (published 1782), it is a study of human isolation and has poignant religious overtones.

Cowper was one of the best and most prolific English letter writers. He also composed the texts of many well-known hymns, including "There Is a Fountain Filled with Blood," "God Moves in a Mysterious Way," and "Oh for a Closer Walk with God." He died on April 25, 1800.

Further Reading

For Cowper's life see Maurice J. Quinlan, William Cowper (1953), and William N. Free, William Cowper (1970), which also contains a fine discussion of Cowper's poetry. Charles Ryskamp, William Cowper of the Inner Temple (1959), deals with the poet's early years. For critical comment see Morris Golden, In Search of Stability: The Poetry of William Cowper (1960), and Patricia A. Spacks, The Insistence of Horror: Aspects of the Supernatural in Eighteenth-Century Poetry (1962).

Additional Sources

Cowper, William, The letters and prose writings of William Cowper, Oxford: Clarendon Press; New York: Oxford University Press, 1979-1986.

Cowper, William, William Cowper, selected letters, Oxford: Clarenden Press; New York: Oxford University Press, 1989.

Roy, James Alexander, Cowper & his poetry, Norwood, Pa.: Norwood Editions, 1977.

Roy, James Alexander, Cowper & his poetry, Philadelphia: R. West, 1978. □

Cowper, William (1731–1800), was educated at a private school (where he was bullied) and at Westminster. He was subject to periods of depression and he attempted suicide. His melancholia took a religious form; he felt himself cast out of God's mercy, and wrote later in his Memoir (c.1767, pub. 1816), ‘conviction of sin and expectation of instant judgement never left me.’ In 1765 he became a boarder (in his own words, ‘a sort of adopted son’) in the home of the Revd Morley Unwin at Huntingdon, and on Morley's death moved with Mary, his widow, to Olney and came under the influence of J. Newton, with whom he wrote Olney Hymns (1779); his contributions include ‘God moves in a mysterious way’ and ‘Oh, for a closer walk with God’. He became engaged to Mrs Unwin, but suffered another bout of depression and made another suicide attempt; he spent a year with the Newtons before returning to Mrs Unwin's home. During a calmer period he wrote, at Mrs Unwin's suggestion, his satires (‘Table Talk’, ‘The Progress of Error’, ‘Truth’, ‘Expostulation’, ‘Hope’, ‘Charity’, ‘Conversation’, and ‘Retirement’) published in 1782 with several shorter poems (including ‘Verses supposed to be written by Alexander Selkirk’; see Selkirk, A.); in the same year he wrote John Gilpin and in 1783–4 his best-known long poem The Task (1785), both subjects suggested by his new friend and neighbour Lady Austen. The volume in which these appeared also contained ‘Tirocinium’, a vigorous attack on public schools. In 1786 he moved with Mrs Unwin to Weston Underwood, where he wrote various poems published after his death, including the unfinished ‘Yardley-Oak’ (admired by Wordsworth), the verses ‘On the Loss of the Royal George’ (‘Toll for the brave…’), ‘To Mary’, and ‘The Poplar-Field’. Mrs Unwin died in 1796, leaving Cowper in severe depression from which he never fully recovered.

He wrote ‘The Castaway’ shortly before his death; like many of his poems it deals with man's isolation and helplessness. Storms and shipwrecks recur in his work as images of the mysterious ways of God. Yet his poems and his much-admired letters (published posthumously) have been highly valued for their intimate portrait of tranquillity and for their playful and delicate wit. His sympathetic feelings for nature presage Romanticism and his use of blank verse links that of James Thomson with that of Wordsworth. He was a champion of the oppressed and wrote verses on Wilberforce and the slave trade.

William Cowper , 1731–1800, English poet. Physically and emotionally unfit for the professional life, he was admitted to the bar but never practiced. After a battle with insanity, Cowper retired to the country, taking refuge with the family of Mrs. Mary Unwin, whose life-long devotion to him he celebrates in "To Mary." Most of his country life was spent at Olney, where he met John Newton, the ardent evangelical preacher. He contributed to Newton's Olney Hymns (1779) several poems, including the two commencing "Oh for a closer walk with God" and "God moves in a mysterious way." His hymns, while expressing the hope of the new humanitarian religious revival, often gave way to religious despair and self-distrust. After Newton left Olney, Cowper, having recovered from another period of insanity, turned to writing about simple homely subjects, producing his famous long poem, The Task (1785). Its descriptions of the sights and sounds of country life foreshadowed 19th-century romanticism. Cowper's sweet-tempered, playful moods found a way into many of his poems, the most notable being "The Diverting History of John Gilpin." He also made a relatively unsuccessful translation of Homer (1791). After the death of Mrs. Unwin in 1796, his old malady returned, and he wrote little except the anguished poem, "The Castaway." His letters are considered among the most brilliant in English literature.

Bibliography: See his verse and letters selected by B. Spiller (1968); letters and prose writings (ed. by J. King and C. Ryskamp, 5 vol., 1979–86); biographies by D. Cecil (1947) and J. King (1986); studies by J. A. Roy (1914, repr. 1972) and V. Newey (1982).

Cowper, William (1731–1800), poet and hymn-writer. He was called to the Bar in 1754, but fear of a competitive examination provoked a suicidal mania in 1763 and he was sent to a private lunatic asylum. In 1767 he moved to Olney, Bucks. Here he worked as a lay assistant to the incumbent, John Newton, at whose request he began writing hymns. He contributed his finest hymns to the ‘Olney Collection’, published in conjunction with J. Newton in 1779. They include ‘God moves in a mysterious way’ and ‘Hark, my soul! it is the Lord’.

Cowper, William (1731–1800) English poet and hymn writer. Despite bouts of near insanity, Cowper's poetry is lucid and direct, often drawing engagingly on the countryside or the details of domestic life, as in the long blank-verse poem The Task (1785). Some of his contributions to Olney Hymns have become standards of the Anglican Church.