William Cowper Quotes - Page 7

Quotes about:

• Unless a love of virtue light the flame,
  Satire is, more than those he brands, to blame;
  He hides behind a magisterial air
  He own offences, and strips others' bare.

  William Cowper

  Light, Air, Flames

  William Cowper (1855). “The Complete Poetical Works of William Cowper: With Life, and Critical Notice of His Writings. Eight Engravings on Steel”, p.78

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• It chills my blood to hear the blest Supreme Rudely appealed to on each trifling theme.

  William Cowper

  Blood, Rude, Chill

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• 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.

  William Cowper

  Pain, Men, Self

  William Cowper (1811). “Poems”, p.237

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• O Winter! ruler of the inverted year, . . . I crown thee king of intimate delights, Fireside enjoyments, home-born happiness, And all the comforts that the lowly roof Of undisturbed Retirement, and the hours Of long uninterrupted evening, know.

  William Cowper

  Retirement, Kings, Home

  William Cowper (1854). “Poetical Works”, p.12

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• The fall of waters and the song of birds,
  And hills that echo to the distant berds,
  Are luxuries excelling all the glare
  The world can boast, and her chief favorites share.

  William Cowper

  Song, Retirement, Fall

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• Words learn'd by rote a parrot may rehearse, But talking is not always to converse, Not more distinct from harmony divine The constant creaking of a country sign.

  William Cowper

  Country, Talking, May

  William Cowper, Henry Stebbing (1869). “The Complete Poetical Works of William Cowper, Esq: Including the Hymns and Translations from Madame Guion, Milton, Etc. ; with a Memoir of the Author”, p.128

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• Scenes must be beautiful which daily view'd
  Please daily, and whose novelty survives
  Long knowledge and the scrutiny of years.

  William Cowper

  Beautiful, Country, Views

  William Cowper, James Sambrook (2016). “William Cowper: The Task and Selected Other Poems”, p.85, Routledge

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• Sacred interpreter of human thought,
  How few respect or use thee as they ought!
  But all shall give account of every wrong,
  Who dare dishonor or defile the tongue;
  Who prostitute it in the cause of vice,
  Or sell their glory at a market-price!

  William Cowper

  Giving, Vices, Use

  William Cowper, James Thomson (1832). “The Works of Cowper and Thompson: Including Many Letters and Poems Never Before Published in this Country. With a New and Interesting Memoir of the Life of Thomson”, p.40

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• Slaves cannot breathe in England; if their lungs Receive our air, that moment they are free; They touch our country, and their shackles fall.

  William Cowper

  Country, Fall, Air

  'The Task' (1785) bk. 2 'The Timepiece' l. 40.

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• I was a poet too; but modern taste
  Is so refined and delicate and chaste,
  That verse, whatever fire the fancy warms,
  Without a creamy smoothness has no charms.
  Thus, all success depending on an ear,
  And thinking I might purchase it too dear,
  If sentiment were sacrific'd to sound,
  And truth cut short to make a period round,
  I judg'd a man of sense could scarce do worse
  Than caper in the morris-dance of verse.

  William Cowper

  Cutting, Men, Thinking

  William Cowper (1830). “Poems ... With a sketch of his life and a vindication of his religious principles and character. Third edition, corrected and enlarged. [With a portrait.]”, p.14

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• Greece, sound, thy Homer's, Rome thy Virgil's name, But England's Milton equals both in fame.

  William Cowper

  Rome, Names, Sound

  William Cowper (1874). “The poetical works of William Cowper, ed: with notes and biographical introd. by William Benham”, p.469

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

  William Cowper

  Sea, Fowl, Royalty

  1782 Poems,'Verses Supposed to be Written by Alexander Selkirk, During His Solitary Abode in the Island of Juan Fernandez'.

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• An epigram is but a feeble thing - With straw in tail, stuck there by way of sting.

  William Cowper

  Tails, Way, Stuck

  William Cowper, Sir Humphrey Sumner Milford (1971). “Poetical works”

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• But animated nature sweeter still, to soothe and satisfy the human ear.

  William Cowper

  Loss, Ears, Animated

  William Cowper (1853). “The Poetical Works of William Cowper: With Life ; Six Engravings on Steel”, p.121

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

  William Cowper

  Dog, Children, Soul

  William Cowper, “The Diverting History Of John Gilpin, Showing How He Went Farther Than He Intended, And Came Safe Home Again”

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• I have a kitten,the drollest of all creatures that ever wore a cat's skin.

  William Cowper

  Cat, Skins, Kitten

  William Cowper (1835). “The Works of William Cowper: With a Life and Notes”, p.185

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• Even in the stifling bosom of the town,
  A garden, in which nothing thrives, has charms
  That soothes the rich possessor; much consol'd,
  That here and there some sprigs of mournful mint,
  Or nightshade, or valerian, grace the well
  He cultivates.

  William Cowper

  Home, Garden, Grace

  William Cowper (1810). “The Task: A Poem. In Six Books”, p.125

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• England, with all thy faults I love thee still, My country!

  William Cowper

  Love, Country, Faults

  The Task bk. 2 "The Timepiece" l. 206 (1785) See Charles Churchill 1

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• Lived in his saddle, loved the chase, the course, And always, ere he mounted, kiss'd his horse.

  William Cowper

  Horse, Kissing, Saddles

  William Cowper, Robert Southey (1835). “The Works of William Cowper, Comprising His Poems, Correspondence, and Translations”, p.208

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• Mansions once
  Knew their own masters, and laborious hinds,
  That had surviv'd the father, serv'd the son.
  Now the legitimate and rightful lord
  Is but a transient guest, newly arrived,
  And soon to be supplanted. He that saw
  His patrimonial timber cast its leaf,
  Sells the last scantling, and transfers the price
  To some shrewd sharper ere it buds again. Estates are landscapes, gazed upon awhile,
  Then advertised and auctioneer'd away.

  William Cowper

  Father, Son, Bud

  William Cowper (1828). “The Poems of William Cowper”, p.227

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• A man renowned for repartee will seldom scruple to make free with friendship's finest feeling, will thrust a dagger at your breast, and say he wounded you in jest, by way of balm for healing.

  William Cowper

  Healing, Men, Feelings

  William Cowper, James Thomson (1832). “The Works of Cowper and Thompson: Including Many Letters and Poems Never Before Published in this Country. With a New and Interesting Memoir of the Life of Thomson”, p.136

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• Man disavows, and Deity disowns me: hell might afford my miseries a shelter; therefore hell keeps her ever-hungry mouths all bolted against me.

  William Cowper

  Men, Insanity, Mouths

  William Cowper (1874). “The poetical works of William Cowper, ed: with notes and biographical introd. by William Benham”, p.23

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• And hast thou sworn on every slight pretence,
  Till perjuries are common as bad pence,
  While thousands, careless of the damning sin,
  Kiss the book's outside, who ne'er look'd within?

  William Cowper

  Book, Kissing, Looks

  William Cowper (1866). “Poetical works”, p.76

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• 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.

  William Cowper

  Sound, Tasks, Venture

  William Cowper (1851). “The Works of William Cowper: His Life, Letters, and Poems. Now First Completed by the Introduction of Cowper's Private Correspondence”, p.379

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• No tree in all the grove but has its charms, Though each its hue peculiar.

  William Cowper

  Tree, Peculiar, Hue

  William Cowper, Robert Southey, William Harvey (1835). “The Works of William Cowper, Comprising His Poems, Correspondence, and Translations”, p.233

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