WIST

What is there in the vale of life
Half so delightful as a wife,
When friendship, love, and peace combine
To stamp the marriage bond divine?

William Cowper (1731-1800) English poet
“Love Abused,” letter to Mary Unwin (27 Jul 1780)

Exactness is the sublimity of fools.
[L'exactitude est le
sublime des sots.]

William Cowper (1731-1800) English poet
“The Task,” bk III, l.187 (1785)

Freedom has a thousand charms to show that slaves, howe’er contented, cannot know.

William Cowper (1731-1800) English poet
(Attributed)

Detested sport,
That owes its pleasures to another’s pain,
That feeds upon the sobs and dying shrieks
Of harmless nature, dumb, but yet endued
With eloquence, that agonies inspire,
Of silent tears and heart-distending sighs!

William Cowper (1731-1800) English poet
The Task, 3.326 (1785)
On hunting.

Domestic happiness, thou only bliss
Of Paradise that has surviv’d the fall!

William Cowper (1731-1800) English poet
The Task, 3.41 (1785)