The Letters of the Late William Cowper to His Friends, Volume 2Baldwin, Cradock, and Joy, 1817 |
From inside the book
Page 67
... My descriptions are all from nature . Not one of them second - handed . My delineations of the heart are from my own experience . Not one of them borrowed from books , or in the least degree conjectural . In my num- bers , which I have ...
... My descriptions are all from nature . Not one of them second - handed . My delineations of the heart are from my own experience . Not one of them borrowed from books , or in the least degree conjectural . In my num- bers , which I have ...
Contents
| 171 | |
| 177 | |
| 183 | |
| 190 | |
| 196 | |
| 203 | |
| 208 | |
| 216 | |
| 33 | |
| 52 | |
| 62 | |
| 76 | |
| 92 | |
| 97 | |
| 103 | |
| 110 | |
| 120 | |
| 127 | |
| 133 | |
| 140 | |
| 146 | |
| 152 | |
| 158 | |
| 164 | |
| 223 | |
| 224 | |
| 231 | |
| 238 | |
| 245 | |
| 249 | |
| 255 | |
| 262 | |
| 268 | |
| 276 | |
| 282 | |
| 286 | |
| 287 | |
| 296 | |
| 303 | |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
Adieu admired Æneid affectionately agreeable amusement beautiful believe blank verse called cause comfort connexion consequently Cowper critics DEAR FRIEND DEAR WILLIAM DEAREST COUSIN defects delighted doubt entertaining expect favour feel finished fore Gilpin give glad hand happy hear heart honour hope Iliad John Gilpin JOHN NEWTON Johnson JOSEPH HILL labour LADY HESKETH language least letter lines live Lord Dartmouth Lymington manner March 19 matter mean mind neighbours ness never numbers occasion Olney once opinion perhaps pleased pleasure poem poet poor Pope portunity possible present reason received recommend respect Scripture seems sensible sent serve soon specimen spirits suffer suppose sure taste tell thank thing thought thousand Throckmorton tion Tirocinium truth volume W. C. TO LADY walk WALTER BAGOT Weston Weston Underwood whole WILLIAM UNWIN wish word write wrote
Popular passages
Page 175 - ... just upon the point of blowing, and could not help observing— All these will be gone before Lady Hesketh comes ! Still however there will be roses, and jasmine, and honeysuckle, and shady walks, and cool alcoves, and you will partake them with us. But I want you to have a share of every thing that is delightful here, and cannot bear that the advance of the season should steal away a single pleasure before you can come to enjoy it. Every day I think of you, and almost all the day long ; I will...
Page 17 - As soon as he and as many more as could find chairs were seated, he began to open the intent of his visit. I told him I had no vote, for which he readily gave me credit. I assured him I had no influence, which he was not equally inclined to believe, and the less, no doubt, because Mr Ashburner the draper addressing himself to me at this moment, informed me that I had a great deal.
Page 140 - On the left hand, at the farther end of this superb vestibule, you will find the door of the parlour, into which I will conduct you, and where I will introduce you to Mrs Unwin, unless we should meet her before, and where we will be as happy as the day is long.
Page 139 - ... cast a look on either side of you, you shall see on the right hand a box of my making. It is the box in which have been lodged all my hares, and in which lodges Puss at present ; but he, poor fellow, is worn out with age, and promises to die before you can see him. On the right hand stands a cupboard, the work of the same author ; it was once a dove-cage, but I transformed it. Opposite to you stands a table, which I also made ; but a merciless servant having scrubbed it...
Page 18 - ... kind-hearted gentleman. He is very young, genteel, and handsome. He has a pair of very good eyes in his head, which not being sufficient as it should seem for the many nice and difficult purposes of a senator, he has a third also, which he wore suspended by a riband from his button-hole. The boys halloo'd, the dogs barked, puss scampered, the hero with his long train of obsequious followers withdrew^. We made ourselves very merry with the adventure, and in a short time settled into our former...
Page 176 - I shall send up the sixth and seventh books of the Iliad shortly, and shall address them to you. You will forward them to the General. I long to show you my workshop, and to see you sitting on the opposite side of my table. We shall be as close packed as two wax figures in an old-fashioned picture frame. I am writing in it now. It is the place in which I fabricate all my verse in summer time.
Page 116 - I wanted any thing, and given delicately enough to understand that the inquirer was ready to supply all my occasions, I thankfully and civilly, but positively, declined the favour. I neither suffer, nor have suffered any such inconveniences as I had not much rather endure, than come under obligations of that sort to a person comparatively with yourself a stranger to me. But to you I answer otherwise. I know you thoroughly, and the liberality of your disposition ; and have that consummate confidence...
Page 198 - ... pencil, those bold and daring strokes of fancy, those numbers so hazardously ventured upon and so happily finished, the matter so compressed and yet so clear, and the colouring so sparingly laid on, and yet with such a beautiful effect? In short, it is not his least praise that he is never guilty of those faults as a writer, which he lays to the charge of others. A proof that he did not judge by a borrowed standard, or from rules laid down by critics, but that he was qualified to do it by his...
Page 58 - ... this country. I should not perhaps find the roaring of lions in Africa, or of bears in Russia, very pleasing ; but I know no beast in England whose voice I do not account musical, save and except always the braying of an ass. The notes of all our birds and fowls please me, without one exception. I should not indeed think of keeping a goose in a cage, that I might hang him up in the parlour for the sake of his melody, but a goose upon a common, or in a farm-yard, is no bad performer...
Page 67 - My descriptions are all from nature ; not one of them second-handed. My delineations of the heart are from my own experience; not one of them borrowed from books, or in the least degree conjectural.