William Cowper

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), 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.

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.