Quotes from work
The Castaway

William Cowper

The Castaway is an elegiac poem/ballad written by William Cowper in 1799. The poem is written in rhymed stanzas and gives the account of a crewman who was washed overboard during a storm. The poem is based on George Anson's Voyage around the World after Cowper read an account which told of one of the men being washed overboard and the horror that his shipmates felt as they watched him without being able to help as shown in this stanza of the poem:

William Cowper photo

“No voice divine the storm allay'd,
No light propitious shone;
When, snatch'd from all effectual aid,
We perish'd, each alone;
But I beneath a rougher sea,
And whelmed in deeper gulphs than he.”

William Cowper The Castaway

"The Castaway" (1799).

Similar authors

William Cowper photo
William Cowper 174
(1731–1800) English poet and hymnodist 1731–1800
John Donne photo
John Donne 115
English poet
Alexander Pope photo
Alexander Pope 158
eighteenth century English poet
John Milton photo
John Milton 190
English epic poet
Samuel Butler (poet) photo
Samuel Butler (poet) 81
poet and satirist
Samuel Johnson photo
Samuel Johnson 362
English writer
Robert Burns photo
Robert Burns 114
Scottish poet and lyricist
William Shakespeare photo
William Shakespeare 699
English playwright and poet
Matthias Claudius photo
Matthias Claudius 1
German poet
George Herbert photo
George Herbert 216
Welsh-born English poet, orator and Anglican priest