Hello and welcome to the Discourse. William Cowper was a popular English evangelist and poet of the eighteenth century. He was born in 1731 in Hertfordshire and was the first surviving child of his parents. His death occurred in 1800. At the age of six years, he lost his mother. After her death, her brother and his wife came close to him and gave him some of his first books including John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress and John Gay’s Fables. Both these books deeply influenced him and turned him towards Evangelical streams.
At the age of 58, one of his cousins gave a picture of his mother. William Cowper wrote a letter to his cousin thanking him in which he stated that the picture of his mother is more precious "than the richest jewel in the British crown". Later, he wrote a poem titled "On the Receipt of My Mother's Picture" that was published in 1798. Cowper belonged to the Augustan age transitioning from NeoClassical trends towards Romanticism and his works appear to be a precursor of the Romantic era. Samuel Taylor Coleridge called him "the best modern poet."
As he grew old, he fell in love with one of his cousins Theodora but her father was not willing to marry her to someone so close in relationship. This broke his heart and he suffered depression. In 1763, he tried to commit suicide and was sent to a mental asylum.
He then settled in Huntington where he met a retired clergyman named Morley Urwin and his wife Mary to whom he became too close. He began living with them and when the couple decided to shift to Olney, William decided to shift with them. In Olney, he met curate John Newton who inspired him to write hymns which later became popular by the collection named Olney Hymns published in 1779. Both John Newton and William Cowper wrote the Olney Hymns but the major share was by William. John Newton’s hymn became too popular while William Cowper’s hymns such as "Praise for the Fountain Opened" (beginning "There is a fountain fill'd with blood") and "Light Shining out of Darkness" (beginning "God Moves in a Mysterious Way"), became some of the most famous verses of Cowper. Cowper wrote 67 of the Olney Hymns.
Poems by William Cowper, of the Inner Temple, Esq
Cowper was living with Robin Urwin and his wife Mary Urwin in Olney when Robin met an accident and died. Cowper continued to live in the house of widow Mary Urwin. During the same time, he again suffered mental disorders and insanity and began thinking that he was eternally damned to hell. He again began thinking of committing suicide but Mary Urwin took better care of him and inspired him to write again. In 1774, he wrote “Hatred and vengeance, my eternal portion” in which Cowper conceives himself as one “Damn’d below Judas.” The poem is also known as ‘Sapphics.’ Cowper regained himself by 1779 and began writing again. Mary Urwin suggested the idea of writing a satire titled The Progress of Error. He wrote seven more poems of a similar satirical nature which were published under the title Poems by William Cowper, of the Inner Temple, Esq in 1782. One of these poems was The Nightingale and The Glow Worm.
In 1783, Cowper met a widow named Lady Austen who encouraged him to write more poetry. She playfully challenged him to write a poem on SOFA in blank verse and he took it as a serious task and wrote the famous work The Task: a Poem In Six Books. The six books of The Task are called "The Sofa", "The Timepiece", "The Garden", "The Winter Evening", "The Winter Morning Walk" and "The Winter Walk at Noon". All these poems were written in blank verse and all six books were published in 1785. In the same volume, along with the six books, Cowper published his famous comic verse The Diverting History of John Gilpin.
In 1785, Cowper also published The Poplar Field, discussing the theme of Humanity vs. nature.
John Newton was an active supporter of the Abolition of the Slave Trade and he was a member of the Committee for the Abolition of the Slave Trade, formed in 1787. Through him, William Cowper learned about the difficulties and inhuman conditions of slaves from Africa and America. In 1788, William Cowper wrote the poem The Negro’s Complaint which talks about slavery from the perspective of the slave. The Negro’s Complaint rapidly became very famous and was often quoted by Martin Luther King Jr. during the 20th-century civil rights movement in America.
Some other popular poems by William Cowper include The Snail, The Solitude of Alexander Selkirk, The Castaway, and God Made the Country.
So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the history of English literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards!
No comments:
Post a Comment