Geburtstag: 26. November 1731
Todesdatum: 25. April 1800
William Cowper war ein englischer Rechtsanwalt und Dichter.
„Knowledge is proud that he has learned so much;
Wisdom is humble that he knows no more.“
— William Cowper, The Task
Quelle: The Task (1785), Book VI, Winter Walk at Noon, Line 92.
Kontext: Knowledge, a rude unprofitable mass,
The mere materials with which wisdom builds,
Till smoothed and squared and fitted to its place,
Does but encumber whom it seems to enrich.
Knowledge is proud that he has learned so much;
Wisdom is humble that he knows no more.
Books are not seldom talismans and spells.
„Silently as a dream the fabric rose —
No sound of hammer or of saw was there.“
— William Cowper, The Task
Quelle: The Task (1785), Book V, The Winter Morning Walk, Line 144.
„Regions Caesar never knew
Thy posterity shall sway“
"Boadicea" (1782).
Kontext: "Regions Caesar never knew
Thy posterity shall sway;
Where his eagles never flew,
None invincible as they."Such the bard's prophetic words, Pregnant with celestial fire, Bending as he swept the chords Of his sweet but awful lyre.
"Boadicea" (1782).
Kontext: "Regions Caesar never knew
Thy posterity shall sway;
Where his eagles never flew,
None invincible as they."Such the bard's prophetic words, Pregnant with celestial fire, Bending as he swept the chords Of his sweet but awful lyre.
„O tell me I yet have a friend,
Though a friend I am never to see.“
Quelle: Verses supposed to be written by Alexander Selkirk (1782), Line 37.
Kontext: My friends, do they now and then send
A wish or a thought after me?
O tell me I yet have a friend,
Though a friend I am never to see.
„It seems idolatry with some excuse,
When our forefather Druids in their oaks
Imagined sanctity.“
Quelle: The Yardley Oak (1791), Lines 9-11
„He would not, with a peremptory tone,
Assert the nose upon his face his own.“
Quelle: Conversation (1782), Line 121.
„I play with syllables and sport in song“
From:First of the Moral Satires
Table Talk (1782)
— William Cowper, The Task
Quelle: The Task (1785), Book III, The Garden, Line 161.
"To a Young Lady" (1782).
— William Cowper, The Task
Quelle: The Task (1785), Book III, The Garden, Line 127.
St. 28.
The Diverting History of John Gilpin (1785)
Verses supposed to be written by Alexander Selkirk.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
— William Cowper, The Task
Quelle: The Task (1785), Book I, The Sofa, Line 506.
— William Cowper, The Task
Quelle: The Task (1785), Book II, The Timepiece, Line 40.
„Gloriously drunk, obey the important call.“
— William Cowper, The Task
Quelle: The Task (1785), Book IV, The Winter Evening, Line 510.
„Low ambition and the thirst of praise.“
Quelle: Table Talk (1782), Line 591.
„Nature is but a name for an effect,
Whose cause is God.“
— William Cowper, The Task
Quelle: The Task (1785), Book VI, Winter Walk at Noon, Line 223.
