and their son and daughter. Mrs. Unwin became like a mother to Cowper, and from that time until her death her home became a shelter to the sensitive poet. He went to live with them; and when they removed to Olney, after Mr. Unwin's death, Cowper accompanied them. 12. There he met another friend, Mr. Newton, a man who had been a rough, wild sailor, but was now a clergyman-a kind-hearted man, but so fearless himself that he could scarcely understand Cowper's timidity; and perhaps he spoke too much of God's wrath against sin, and so helped to bring on a second fit of insanity. Yet, strangely enough, Cowper insisted on staying in Newton's house. While there he amused himself with three pet hares, which he called Puss, Bess, and Tiny, and some rabbits and birds, and a small dog called Beau. Perhaps the affection of these dumb animals helped to restore his mind. When Cowper got better, Mrs. Unwin persuaded him to write some longer poems than he had yet attempted, and this gave his mind the occupation needed to keep it healthy and sound. He wrote poems on The Progress of Error, Truth, Table Talk, Hope, Charity, and such subjects. 13. One day, at Olney, Cowper saw two ladies going into a shop opposite. He liked their appearance so much that he asked Mrs. Unwin to invite them to tea. Yet when the ladies came it was long before he could be persuaded to enter the room, being still as shy as in his school days. When he did so, he was greatly charmed with one of the ladies-Lady Austen, a bright, lively woman. The two became great friends; and when Cowper was dull, Lady Austen would tell him amusing stories to make him laugh. One of these, John Gilpin, specially took his fancy, and he turned it into verse, which I hope most of you know. 14. Another time Lady Austen urged the poet to write a poem in blank verse. "What shall I write about?" he asked. "Oh, anything. Write a poem on this sofa," replied Lady Austen. The poem was written, and Cowper called it The Task, because Lady Austen had set it to him to do. The first part was "The Sofa;" other parts were "The Timepiece," "The Garden," "The Winter Evening," "The Winter Morning Walk,” “The Winter Walk at Noon." Like Thomson, Cowper describes nature simply and truly, and gives pictures of country life and people as they really are. 15. While Cowper and Mrs. Unwin were living at Olney, his cousin, Lady Hesketh, came on a visit. She brought many messages and little presents from some friend of Cowper, whose name was not to be mentioned. Perhaps Cowper guessed that it was Theodora. Lady Hesketh persuaded those quiet people to go out more into society, and also to move to a prettier village a little way from Olney. There they lived for nine years, and there Cowper wrote his translation of Homer's "Iliad," and also some very tender lines, To Mary. Mary was Mrs. Unwin, his constant old friend, whose health was now beginning to fail. She had had a shock of paralysis, which had taken away her power of speech and the use of her limbs. Cowper writes :— "Thy silver locks, once auburn bright, 16. The old friendship lasted to the end; and when, after travelling from place to place seeking health, Mrs. Unwin died, Cowper spent five years in a cloud of grief and gloom; and at last, in the year 1800, he passed away. His life had been a dark one, but he had never lost his faith in God and His goodness; and in all his works he had tried to help on the cause of freedom and universal brotherhood. His pen had been ever ready to write against tyranny and oppression, whether it was the petty cruelty of the big school-boy towards the little one, from which he himself had suffered, or the wicked slave system that meant misery for suffering creatures quite unknown to him. He writes thus about slavery :— "I would not have a slave to till my ground, To carry me, to fan me while I sleep, And tremble when I wake, for all the wealth I had much rather be myself the slave, And wear the bonds, than fasten them on him." 17. In all his writings Cowper sets himself strongly against the falsity of the fashionable society of his time, with its pomp and pretence, and delights in the simple pleasures of country life-the winter walk, or the quiet cosy evenings at home with the curtains closed, the urn hissing on the tea-table, the ladies busy with their embroidery, while he is enjoying his book or his newspaper. In spite of all his gloom, too, Cowper looked forward hopefully to better times. As he himself says : "For all were once Perfect, and all must be at length restored...... Haste then." 18. Hope in the improvement of society was growing stronger, but it rested chiefly on changes of government. You have heard how the French tried to gain greater freedom by the Revolution. Many living in England at that time, especially young men, were full of hopefulness as to what that change might bring about. You can imagine how the young poets of the time would especially welcome the prospect of freedom. CHAPTER XXV. WILLIAM WORDSWORTH. 1. One of those young poets who watched the movements of France with eager eyes was WILLIAM WORDSWORTH, a poet who had been brought up among the beautiful lakes and mountains of the north of England- -the Lake Country, as it is called. He was then at Cambridge, and the stir of the Revolution had reached his quiet life there, and set all his young pulses beating with hope. He afterwards wrote about that time "Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive, But to be young was very heaven!...... Wordsworth was in Paris at the time of the terrible massacres, and would have joined the Girondists,1 and probably have been guillotined with them, if his friends had not insisted on his returning home. It was not long before all Wordsworth's hopes 1 Girondists, moderate republicans; named from the department of Gironde in France. died out, as he saw that the reign of a careless king had been exchanged for what was far worse the brutal cruelty of the Reign of Terror.1 2. When Wordsworth returned from France after the Reign of Terror, he went to London, not knowing what he should do next; and perhaps not caring very much, since his hopes for the dawn of liberty had been so cruelly disappointed. It was just at that time, when her help was most sorely needed, that Wordsworth's sister Dorothy went to live with him and be his devoted companion and friend. As children, they had seen but little of each other, for Dorothy did not live in her own home, but with friends at a distance. Now she left the Lake country and came to the south, to Dorsetshire, where Wordsworth settled for a short time. Soon they moved to another house among the Somersetshire hills, and there, besides his sister, Wordsworth found a very interesting and sympathetic friend in his neighbour, the poet Coleridge. Together they decided upon writing a volume of poetry. Some years later this volume appeared, under the name of Lyrical Ballads. Most of the poems in it were by Wordsworth, only The Ancient Mariner and one or two others were written by Coleridge, who was a dreamy man, always making great plans, but seldom doing what he planned. 3. In the same year that the Lyrical Ballads were published, Wordsworth and Coleridge went to Germany, and had a pleasant excursion there, reading a great deal of German literature, especially German ballads, and taking a great interest in the German philosophy. Wordsworth and his sister spent the winter there. When they came back to England, instead of settling in the south, they went northwards to their own beautiful native country of lakes and mountains. By this time Wordsworth had quite made up his mind what his work was to be writing poetry which should describe nature and human life simply and truthfully. 1 The Reign of Terror, the period in which the republican Robespierre and his associates ruled France. Their policy was He could afford to give to bring to execution all who objected to their government, or of whom they were jealous. |