1st Edition

William Cowper The Task and Selected Other Poems

By William Cowper, James Sambrook Copyright 1994
346 Pages
by Routledge

346 Pages
by Routledge

346 Pages
by Routledge

Having previously suffered neglect as a result of Pope's dominance of the period, William Cowper (1731-1800) has now become a far more important figure in eighteenth-century literature. Following the successful format of the series, Professor Sambrook's edition consists of a comprehensive, contextual editor's introduction together with substantial annotation on the page. The Task (1785) is the... Read more
PART 1: Cowper's early life and writings  Madness, salvation and Mary Unwin; John Newton and "Olney Hymns"; madness and reprobation; recovery - occasional poems and letters; moral satires; Lady Austen and light verse; "The Task" - a poem of composite order; "The Task" - idyllium and georgio; "The Task" - philosophical satire; "The Task" - baptized philosophy; Lady Hesketh and the Homer translation; last years; Cowper's place  PART 2: Early poems  On Finding the Heel of a Shoe; "Delia, Th'unkindest Girl on Earth"; song - "No More Shall Hapless Celia's Ears"; Epistle to Robert Lloyd; "Doom'd, As I Am, In Solitude to Waste"; "Hatred and Vengeance, My Eternal Portion"  PART 3: Olney Hymns  Walking with God; Lovest Thou Me?; Praise for the Fountain Opened; Jehovah our Righteousness; I will Praise the Lord at all Times; Light Shining Out of Darkness  PART 4: Poems (1782)  The Progress of Error (lines 369-416); Truth (lines 131-64); Expostulation (lines 272-389); Hope (lines 663-771); Conversation (505-604); Retirement (365-480); Verses supposed to be written by Alexander Selkirk; Boadicea - an ode  PART 5: Later poems  The Diverting History of John Gilpin; The Colubriad; On the Loss of the Royal George; Epitaph on a Hare; Sweet Meat has Sour Sauce; On The Death of Mrs Throckmorton's Bulfinch; On the Recepit of my Mother's Picture out of Norfolk; Yardley Oak; To Mary; The Cast-away  PART 6 Translation of Homer  "Iliad" I, 1-8; "Iliad" XII, 336-97; "Odyssey" VII, 134-62.

Biography

James Sambrook