Author:William Cowper (1731-1800)

For authors with similar names, see Author:William Cowper.

William Cowper
(1731–1800)

William Cowper

Works

Poetry

Collections

• The Poetical Works of William Cowper

Individual poems

• Verses Written at Bath on Finding the Heel of a Shoe
• An Epistle to Robert Lloyd, Esq.
• Mortals! around your destin'd heads
• Of Himself
• The Symptoms of Love
• An Apology For Not Showing Her What I Had Wrote
• Delia, th' unkindest girl on earth
• This ev'ning, Delia, you and I
• An Attempt at the Manner of Waller
• A Song
• Upon a Venerable Rival
• Written in a Quarrel
• See where the Thames, the purest stream
• How blest the youth whom Fate ordains
• Ode, Supposed to be Written on the Marriage of a Friend
• On Her Endeavouring to Conceal Her Grief at Parting
• Bid adieu, my sad heart
• On the Death of Sir W. Russell
• An Address To The Mob On Occasion Of The Late Riot At The House Of Sir Hugh Palliser
• The Modern Patriot
• The Distressed Travellers
• The Poplar-Field
• The Nightingale and the Glow-worm
• On a Goldfinch Starved to Death in his Cage
• Boadicea: An Ode
• The Negro's Complaint
• Verses Supposed To Be Written by Alexander Selkirk
• Care for the Lowest, poem advocating animal-rights
• Sweet Meat has Sour Sauce
• Retirement
• The Winter Nosegay
• To the Nightingale
• Sonnet to William Wilberforce, Esq.
• Epigrams on his Garden Shed
• To Mary
• The Castaway
• Anti-Thelyphthora, satirical attack against the defence of polygamy entitled Thelyphthora
• The Diverting History of John Gilpin (1782)
• The Task
• The Lilly and the Rose quoted in An Argosy of Fables. (1921)
• On the Receipt of My Mother's Picture
• Pity the Poor Africans

Anthologized:

• "Ode to Peace" in Poems and Extracts (1905), by William Wordsworth
• "The Morning Dream" in Poems Written During the Progress of the Abolition Question In the United States (1837), by John Greenleaf Whittier

Hymns

Olney Hymns (1779)

• As birds their infant brood protect (Jehovah-Shammah)
• By whom was David taught (Jehovah Nissi, The Lord my banner)
• Ere God had built the mountains (Wisdom)
• God gives his mercies to be spent (Vanity of the world)
• Heal us, EMMANUEL, here we are (Jehovah Rophi, I am the Lord that healeth thee)
• Hear what God the LORD hath spoken (The future peace and glory of the church)
• I Will praise thee every day (O Lord I will praise thee)
• Jesus, whose blood so freely streamed (Jehovah Shalem, The Lord send peace)
• My God! how perfect are thy ways! (Jehovah our righteousness)
• My God! till I received thy stroke (Ephraim repenting)
• O! for a closer walk with God (Walking with God)
• The LORD will happiness divine (The contrite heart)
• The Lord proclaims his grace abroad (The covenant)
• The saints should never be dismayed (Jehovah Jireh, The Lord will provide)
• There is a fountain filled with blood (Praise for the fountain opened)
• Ye sons of earth prepare the plow (The sower)

Translations

• The Iliad of Homer (1791)
• The Odyssey of Homer (1791)
• Poems translated from the French of Madame de la Mothe Guion (1834)

Works about Cowper

• "Cowper", by George Edward Woodberry from Studies in letters and life (1890).
• "Introductory Memoir" [biography] from The Poetical Works of William Cowper, 1870 by William Benham
• "Cowper, William," in Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography, (ed.) by John Francis Waller and John Eadie, Glasgow: W. Mackenzie (1876)
• A Portrait of William Cowper: His Own Interpreter in Letters and Poems, 2004 by Louise B. Risk
• "Cowper, William (1731-1800)," in Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, London: Smith, Elder, & Co. (1885–1900) in 63 vols.
• "Cowper, William," in A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature, by John William Cousin, London: J. M. Dent & Sons (1910)
• "Cowper, William," in Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed., 1911)