The Life, and Posthumous Writings, of William Cowper, Esqr: With an Introductory Letter to the Right Honourable Earl Cowper, Volume 3J. Seagrave, 1806 |
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Page 13
... matter in itself , capable of no other embellishment than purity of diction , and harmony of versification , can give to it . Hic labor , hoc opus est . For our language , unless it be very severely chastised , has 13.
... matter in itself , capable of no other embellishment than purity of diction , and harmony of versification , can give to it . Hic labor , hoc opus est . For our language , unless it be very severely chastised , has 13.
Page 27
... matter so compressed , and yet so clear , and the co- louring so sparingly laid on , and yet with such a beautiful effect ? In short , it is not his least praise that he is never guilty of those faults as a writer , which he lays to the ...
... matter so compressed , and yet so clear , and the co- louring so sparingly laid on , and yet with such a beautiful effect ? In short , it is not his least praise that he is never guilty of those faults as a writer , which he lays to the ...
Page 42
... matter to reduce this doctrine into practice . We forget that that God who gave them , them , may , when he pleases , take them away ; and that perhaps it may please him to take them at a time when we least expect , or are least ...
... matter to reduce this doctrine into practice . We forget that that God who gave them , them , may , when he pleases , take them away ; and that perhaps it may please him to take them at a time when we least expect , or are least ...
Page 44
... matter viewed in this light , seems not so wonderful as to refuse all explanation , except such as in a melancholy moment you have given to it . And I am so convinced that the little boy's destiny had no influence at all in hastening ...
... matter viewed in this light , seems not so wonderful as to refuse all explanation , except such as in a melancholy moment you have given to it . And I am so convinced that the little boy's destiny had no influence at all in hastening ...
Page 53
... matter and manner like all the rest of his dealings with his Cousin the poet . I had a Letter also yesterday from Mr. Smith , Member for Nottingham . Though we never saw each other , he writes to me in the most friendly terms , and ...
... matter and manner like all the rest of his dealings with his Cousin the poet . I had a Letter also yesterday from Mr. Smith , Member for Nottingham . Though we never saw each other , he writes to me in the most friendly terms , and ...
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Common terms and phrases
Adieu affectionate amusement answer attention beautiful believe Blank verse Bodham Callimachus comfort Cowper DEAR FRIEND DEAR SIR DEAREST COUSIN dearest Coz delight Eartham Esqr expect expression favour feel forget Gentleman's Magazine George Throckmorton give glad happy hear heard heart Homer honour hope Iliad JOHN JOHNSON Johnny JOSEPH HILL June 15 kind labour Lady HESKETH least live London manner mean melancholy Milton mind morning neighbour nerally never obliged occasion Odyssey Olney once perhaps pleased pleasure poem poet present reason rejoice Revd SAMUEL ROSE seems seen sensible sent soon spirits suffer suppose sure tell thank thee thing thou thought Throckmorton tion translation truth Unwin verse Villoison W. C. LETTER W. C. The Lodge W. C. To Lady walk WALTER BAGOT Weston WILLIAM HAYLEY wish write yesterday young
Popular passages
Page 450 - Implored your highness' pardon and set forth A deep repentance: nothing in his life Became him like the leaving it; he died As one that had been studied in his death, To throw away the dearest thing he owed As 'twere a careless trifle.
Page 217 - The world could not have furnished you with a present so acceptable to me, as the picture which you have so kindly sent me. I received it the night before last, and viewed it with a trepidation of nerves and spirits somewhat akin to what I should have felt, had the dear original presented herself to my embraces. I kissed it, and hung it where it is the last object, that I see at night, and of course the first on which I open my eyes in the morning.
Page 394 - MARY ! I want a lyre with other strings, Such aid from heaven as some have feign'd they drew, An eloquence scarce given to mortals, new And undebased by praise of meaner things, That, ere through age or woe I shed my wings, I may record thy worth with honour due, In verse as musical as thou art true, And that immortalizes whom it sings.
Page 26 - It is a great thing to be indeed a poet, and does not happen to more than one man in a century. Churchill,' the great Churchill, deserved the name of poet : I have read him twice, and some of his pieces three times over, and the last time with more pleasure than the first. The pitiful scribbler of his life seems to have undertaken that task, for which he was entirely unqualified, merely because it afforded him an opportunity to traduce him.
Page 82 - Weston on purpose to implore the assistance of my muse, and on his replying in the affirmative, I felt my mortified vanity a little consoled, and pitying the poor man's distress, which appeared to be considerable, promised to supply him. The waggon has accordingly gone this day to Northampton loaded in part with my effusions in the mortuary stile. A fig for poets who write epitaphs upon individuals ! I have written one, that serves two hundred persons.
Page 450 - ... person at the point of death, we cannot forbear being attentive to every thing he says or does, because we are sure that some time or other we shall ourselves be in the same melancholy circumstances. The general, the statesman, or the philosopher, are perhaps characters which we may never act in, but the dying man is one whom, sooner or later, we shall certainly resemble.
Page 240 - It was that fatal and perfidious bark Built in th' eclipse, and rigged with curses dark, That sunk so low that sacred head of thine.
Page 218 - ... trepidation of nerves and spirits somewhat akin to what I should have felt had the dear original presented herself to my embraces. I kissed it, and hung it where it is the last object that I see at night, and, of course, the first on which I open my eyes in the morning. She died when I...
Page 71 - It had never occurred to me that a parson has no fee-simple in the house and glebe he occupies. There was neither tree, nor gate, nor stile, in all that country, to which I did not feel a relation, and the house itself I preferred to a palace. I was sent for from London to attend him in his last illness, and he died just before I arrived. Then, and not till then, I felt for the first time that I and my native place were disunited forever.
Page 58 - Burns' poems, and have read them twice ; and, though they be written in a language that is new to me, and many of them on subjects much inferior to the author's ability, I think them on the whole a very extraordinary production.