
In this selection, which includes short poems and extracts from the longer ones, there is ample evidence of the quality of Cowper's faith and of his eye and ear for nature. Indicative of how his life was sustained by writing, these poems reveal his effort to engage in discourse...

The poems of William Cowper (1731-1800) are best known outside their literary context, as hymns or half-remembered popular ballads. This selection reveals the qualities that have made Cowper's work enduringly loved: his gentle humor and detailed, delighted observations of...

