Grief is itself a med’cine.
William Cowper (1731-1800) English poet
“Charity,” l. 159 (1782)
Quotations by:
Cowper, William
Absence from whom we love is worse than death,
And frustrate hope severer than despair.
William Cowper (1731-1800) English poet
“Hope, like the short-lived ray that gleams awhile”
(Source)
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)
I would not enter on my list of friends,
(Though graced with polish’d manners and fine sense,
Yet wanting sensibility) the man
Who needlessly sets foot upon a worm.
William Cowper (1731-1800) English poet
“Winter Walk at Noon,” l. 560ff, The Task, Book 6 (1785)
(Source)
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.
Nature is but a name for an effect,
Whose cause is God.William Cowper (1731-1800) English poet
The Task, 6.123 (1785)
All flesh is grass, and all its glory fades
Like the fair flower dishevell’d in the wind;
Riches have wings, and grandeur is a dream;
The man we celebrate must find a tomb,
And we that worship him, ignoble graves.
Exactness is the sublimity of fools.
[L’exactitude est le sublime des sots.]
William Cowper (1731-1800) English poet
The Task, Book 3, l. 187 (1785)
Domestic happiness, thou only bliss
Of Paradise that has surviv’d the fall!William Cowper (1731-1800) English poet
The Task, Book 3, l. 41 (1785)
All has its date below; the fatal hour
Was register’d in Heav’n ere time began.
We turn to dust, and all our mightiest works
Die too.William Cowper (1731-1800) English poet
The Task, Book 5 “The Winter Morning Walk,” l. 529ff (1785)
(Source)