“His head,
Not yet by time completely silvered o'er,
Bespoke him past the bounds of freakish youth,
But strong for service still, and unimpaired.”

— William Cowper , The Task

Source: The Task (1785), Book II, The Timepiece, Line 702.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "His head, Not yet by time completely silvered o'er, Bespoke him past the bounds of freakish youth, But strong for se…" by William Cowper?

William Cowper photo

William Cowper 174

(1731–1800) English poet and hymnodist 1731–1800

Related quotes

“A chieftain to the Highlands bound
Cries, "Boatman, do not tarry!
And I'll give thee a silver pound
To row us o'er the ferry!"”

Thomas Campbell (1777–1844) British writer

Stanza 1
Lord Ullin's Daughter

“His golden locks time hath to silver turned;
O time too swift! O swiftness never ceasing!
His youth ’gainst time and age hath ever spurned,
But spurned in vain; youth waneth by encreasing.”

George Peele (1556–1596) English translator and poet

Polyhymnia (1590), reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

“Yet are steeps and stone-strown passes
Smooth o'er head, and nearest God.”

Joaquin Miller (1837–1913) American judge

"Juanita".
In Classic Shades, and Other Poems (1890)
Context: p>Rugged! Rugged as Parnassus!
Rude, as all roads I have trod —
Yet are steeps and stone-strown passes
Smooth o'er head, and nearest God.Here black thunders of my canyon
Shake its walls in Titan wars!
Here white sea-born clouds companion
With such peaks as know the stars!</p

“The heads of strong old age are beautiful / Beyond all grace of youth”

Robinson Jeffers (1887–1962) American poet

“Religion has no limits, and no bounds;—
The vast, the infinite, and the eternal.,
Never from her may Genius separate.
Imagination from its earliest flight,
Past o'er the bounds of life : and the sublime
Is the reflection of divinity.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–1838) English poet and novelist

Translations, From the French

“Lone upon a mountain, the pine-trees wailing round him,
Lone upon a mountain the Grecian youth is laid;
Sleep, mystic sleep, for many a year has bound him,
Yet his beauty, like a statue's pale and fair, is undecay'd.
When will he awaken?”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–1838) English poet and novelist

The Monthly Magazine

“The empire of Saturnus is gone by;
Lord of the secret birth of things is he;
Within the lap of earth, and in the depths
Of the imagination dominates;
And his are all things that eschew the light.
The time is o'er of brooding and contrivance,
For Jupiter, the lustrous, lordeth now,
And the dark work, complete of preparation,
He draws by force into the realm of light.
Now must we hasten on to action, ere
The scheme, and most auspicious positure
Parts o'er my head, and takes once more its flight,
For the heavens journey still, and adjourn not.”

Friedrich Schiller Wallenstein

Act I, sc. i
Wallenstein (1798), Part II - Wallensteins Tod (The Death of Wallenstein)

“Remote from cities liv'd a swain,
Unvex'd with all the cares of gain;
His head was silver'd o'er with age,
And long experience made him sage.”

John Gay (1685–1732) English poet and playwright

Introduction, "The Shepherd and the Philosopher"
Fables (1727)

“So weak thou art, that fools thy power despise;
And yet so strong, thou triumph'st o'er the wise.”

Jonathan Swift (1667–1745) Anglo-Irish satirist, essayist, and poet

To Love, found in Miss Vanhomrigh's desk after her death, in Swift's handwriting

“There is time, and you must take it, to lay your hand on your dog's head as you walk past him lying on the floor or on his settle, time to talk with him, to remember with him, time to please him, time you can't buy back once he's gone”

George Bird Evans (1906–1998) American writer

October Fever (1989)

Related topics