William Cowper: Trending quotes

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William Cowper: 348 quotes8 likes

“Oh for a lodge in some vast wilderness,
Some boundless contiguity of shade,
Where rumor of oppression and deceit,
Of unsuccessful or successful war,
Might never reach me more.”

William Cowper The Task

Source: The Task (1785), Book II, The Timepiece, Line 1.

“England, with all thy faults, I love thee still—
My country! and, while yet a nook is left
Where English minds and manners may be found,
Shall be constrained to love thee.”

William Cowper The Task

Source: The Task (1785), Book II, The Timepiece, Line 206.

“Knowledge is proud that he has learned so much;
Wisdom is humble that he knows no more.”

William Cowper The Task

Source: The Task (1785), Book VI, Winter Walk at Noon, Line 92.
Context: Knowledge, a rude unprofitable mass,
The mere materials with which wisdom builds,
Till smoothed and squared and fitted to its place,
Does but encumber whom it seems to enrich.
Knowledge is proud that he has learned so much;
Wisdom is humble that he knows no more.
Books are not seldom talismans and spells.

“Silently as a dream the fabric rose —
No sound of hammer or of saw was there.”

William Cowper The Task

Source: The Task (1785), Book V, The Winter Morning Walk, Line 144.

“Regions Caesar never knew
Thy posterity shall sway”

William Cowper

"Boadicea" (1782).
Context: "Regions Caesar never knew
Thy posterity shall sway;
Where his eagles never flew,
None invincible as they."Such the bard's prophetic words, Pregnant with celestial fire, Bending as he swept the chords Of his sweet but awful lyre.

“Such the bard's prophetic words, Pregnant with celestial fire, Bending as he swept the chords Of his sweet but awful lyre.”

William Cowper

"Boadicea" (1782).
Context: "Regions Caesar never knew
Thy posterity shall sway;
Where his eagles never flew,
None invincible as they."Such the bard's prophetic words, Pregnant with celestial fire, Bending as he swept the chords Of his sweet but awful lyre.

“O tell me I yet have a friend,
Though a friend I am never to see.”

William Cowper

Source: Verses supposed to be written by Alexander Selkirk (1782), Line 37.
Context: My friends, do they now and then send
A wish or a thought after me?
O tell me I yet have a friend,
Though a friend I am never to see.

“It seems idolatry with some excuse,
When our forefather Druids in their oaks
Imagined sanctity.”

William Cowper

Source: The Yardley Oak (1791), Lines 9-11

“He would not, with a peremptory tone,
Assert the nose upon his face his own.”

William Cowper

Source: Conversation (1782), Line 121.

“I play with syllables and sport in song”

William Cowper

From:First of the Moral Satires
Table Talk (1782)

“Great contest follows, and much learned dust
Involves the combatants; each claiming truth,
And truth disclaiming both.”

William Cowper The Task

Source: The Task (1785), Book III, The Garden, Line 161.

“Sweet stream that winds through yonder glade,
Apt emblem of a virtuous maid
Silent and chaste she steals along,
Far from the world's gay busy throng:
With gentle yet prevailing force,
Intent upon her destined course;
Graceful and useful all she does,
Blessing and blest where'er she goes;
Pure-bosom'd as that watery glass,
And Heaven reflected in her face.”

William Cowper

"To a Young Lady" (1782).

“Dream after dream ensues;
And still they dream that they shall still succeed;
And still are disappointed.”

William Cowper The Task

Source: The Task (1785), Book III, The Garden, Line 127.

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

William Cowper

St. 28.
The Diverting History of John Gilpin (1785)

“But the sound of the church-going bell
These valleys and rocks never heard;
Ne'er sigh'd at the sound of a knell,
Or smiled when a Sabbath appear'd.”

William Cowper

Verses supposed to be written by Alexander Selkirk.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

“The earth was made so various, that the mind
Of desultory man, studious of change
And pleased with novelty, might be indulged.”

William Cowper The Task

Source: The Task (1785), Book I, The Sofa, Line 506.

“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 The Task

Source: The Task (1785), Book II, The Timepiece, Line 40.

“Gloriously drunk, obey the important call.”

William Cowper The Task

Source: The Task (1785), Book IV, The Winter Evening, Line 510.