William Cowper: Trending quotes

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William Cowper: 348 quotes8 likes

“Ever let the Fancy roam,
Pleasure never is at home.”

Actually the opening lines of Keats's "Fancy" (1820).
Misattributed

Source: The Task (1785), Book II, The Timepiece, Line 481.

“There is a fountain fill'd with blood
Drawn from Emmanuel's veins;
And sinners, plung'd beneath that flood,
Lose all their guilty stains.”

William Cowper

No. 79, "Praise for the Fountain Opened".
Olney Hymns (1779)

“O Winter, ruler of the inverted year!”

William Cowper The Task

Source: The Task (1785), Book IV, The Winter Evening, Line 120.

“Toll for the brave —
The brave! that are no more;
All sunk beneath the wave,
Fast by their native shore!”

William Cowper

"On the Loss of the Royal George", st. 1 (1791).

“Survivor sole, and hardly such, of all
that once lived here”

William Cowper

Source: The Yardley Oak (1791), Lines 1-2

“I would not enter on my list of friends,
(Though graced with polish'd manners and fine sense,
Yet wanting sensibility) the man
Who needlessly sets foot upon a worm.
An inadvertent step may crush the snail
That crawls at evening in the public path;
But he that has humanity, forewarn'd,
Will tread aside, and let the reptile live.”

William Cowper The Task

Source: The Task (1785), Book VI, Winter Walk at Noon, Line 560.

“Which not even critics criticise.”

William Cowper The Task

Source: The Task (1785), Book IV, The Winter Evening, Line 51.

“I praise the Frenchman [Voltaire], his remark was shrewd —
How sweet, how passing sweet, is solitude!
But grant me still a friend in my retreat
Whom I may whisper — solitude is sweet.”

William Cowper Retirement

Source: Retirement (1782), Line 739.

“Tis hard if all is false that I advance,
A fool must now and then be right by chance.”

William Cowper

Source: Conversation (1782), Line 96.

“Made poetry a mere mechanic art.”

William Cowper

Source: Table Talk (1782), Line 654.

“With spots quadrangular of diamond form,
Ensanguined hearts, clubs typical of strife,
And spades, the emblems of untimely graves.”

William Cowper The Task

Source: The Task (1785), Book IV, The Winter Evening, Line 217.

“Misery still delights to trace
Its semblance in another's case.”

William Cowper The Castaway

"The Castaway" (1799).

“But many a crime deem'd innocent on earth
Is register'd in Heaven; and these no doubt
Have each their record, with a curse annex'd.
Man may dismiss compassion from his heart,
But God will never.”

William Cowper The Task

Source: The Task (1785), Book VI, Winter Walk at Noon, Line 439.

“So Fancy dreams. Disprove it, if ye can,
Ye reasoners broad awake, whose busy search
Of argument, employed too oft amiss,
Sifts half the pleasures of short life away!”

William Cowper

Source: The Yardley Oak (1791), Lines 29-32

“O solitude! where are the charms
That sages have seen in thy face?
Better dwell in the midst of alarms
Than reign in this horrible place.”

William Cowper

Source: Verses supposed to be written by Alexander Selkirk (1782), Line 5.

“As dreadful as the Manichean god,
Adored through fear, strong only to destroy.”

William Cowper The Task

Source: The Task (1785), Book V, The Winter Morning Walk, Line 444.

“In indolent vacuity of thought.”

William Cowper The Task

Source: The Task (1785), Book IV, The Winter Evening, Line 297.

“Deep in unfathomable mines
Of never failing skill,
He treasures up his bright designs,
And works his sovereign will.”

William Cowper

No. 35, "Light Shining out of Darkness".
Olney Hymns (1779)

“From reveries so airy, from the toil
Of dropping buckets into empty wells,
And growing old in drawing nothing up.”

William Cowper The Task

Source: The Task (1785), Book III, The Garden, Line 188.