WILLIAM COWPER LONG QUESTIONS

MAJOR THEMES IN
WILLIAM COWPER’S POETRY

 INTRODUCTION:

William Cowper was a popular English poet and hymn writer of the eighteenth century.
One of the most popular poets of his time, Cowper changed the direction of 18 th-century nature
poetry by writing of everyday life and scenes of the English countryside. During his active literary
years, he is believed to have had the largest (or one of the largest) readership of any English poet.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge called him “the best modern poet”.

 TRANSITIONAL POET:

William Cowper is generally categorized as a pre-romantic or transitional poet. Unlike the

Augustan poetry, transitional poetry is about countryside, of common and ordinary people, and
not of the fashionable, aristocratic society and town life. Love of nature and human life
characterize this poetry.

The transitional poets revolted against the conventional poetic style and diction of the
Augustan poetry. They aimed at achieving simplicity of expression. This poetry appealed to
emotions and imagination. It is marked by the development of naturalism. Crabbe, Burns, Blake
and many others are the pioneers of naturalism. The transitional poets are the forerunners of
the splendid outburst of the romantic poetry of the nineteenth century.

 ROMANTIC OR MORALIST?

He is often regarded as one of the first poets of the romanticism movement. His natural
style of writing often reflected the tumultuous feelings he experienced in his personal life. Some
scholars, including the nineteenth-century critics Walter Bagehot and George Saintsbury, argue
that Cowper's satiric and didactic tendencies place him closer to the eighteenth-century
moralists than to the Romantics.

SHEHRYAR RIAZ
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WILLIAM COWPER LONG QUESTIONS

 THEMES:

Christian Theology is a recurrent theme in his poetry. Three of his four poems, that we
studied of him in our course deal with this single theme. Good Moves In A Mysterious Way,
Dependence and Contentment all are rooted in Christian Theology. Comparison is the only
exception. It deals with the theme of value of time.

 CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY:

As a preacher and fervent Christian, the will of God and Christian belief always play a
major role within the poetry of William Cowper. Cowper's religious beliefs were rooted in
evangelical Calvinism. His life, as John Piper describes it in his biography of Cowper, seems to
have been “one long accumulation of pain,” especially mental pain. But he trusted in faith – not
perfectly, but perseveringly – that in this mysterious and maddening providence, God was
working wonders. Human depravity and sin make appearances in most of his texts, and God is
the one who saves and redeems individuals from that sin. He says in Dependence,

“The Lord’s unsparing hand

Supplies the living stream;
It is not at our own command,
But still derived from Him.”

His poems often explicitly name God or refer to his will as unchanging. This thematic focus
made him one of the most popular poets of his time. One major example of this can be found in
his hymn "God Moves in a Mysterious Way", which focusses strongly on the difference between
the human perception of situations and the true Godly perception. For Cowper it was never
acceptable to question God.

“Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,

But trust Him for His grace;
Behind a frowning providence
He hides a smiling face.”

God works in our lives in strange ways and is unpredictable in the decisions he makes for
us. God often steers us off our plan and will put us on his road for us. William Cowper was keenly
aware of the truth that God moves in mysterious ways.

“God moves in a mysterious way

His wonders to perform”

SHEHRYAR RIAZ
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WILLIAM COWPER LONG QUESTIONS

Cowper says that sometimes there are violent passions and disturbing thoughts that
disturb our mind. As hurricanes and sea storms disturb smooth moment of the sea. But we can
find content if we turn to the Lord. In his poem Contentment, he says that instead of spending
our days crying, we should turn to God and find calmness, peace and contentment.

Fierce passions discompose the mind,

As tempests vex the sea,
But calm, content and peace we find,
When, Lord, we turn to Thee.

According to Cowper, purpose of man’s life is to seek for truth under God’s command.
That is where the true wisdom lies. But we should not become too confident in our wisdom and
strength as they are provided by God and he can take them back if he wants. He gives example
of the fallen angel Lucifer who became too proud in his strength. So, God took his power away
and made him weak.

Man’s wisdom is to seek

His strength in God alone;
And e’en an angel would be weak,
Who trusted in his own.

All of our actions should be done according to the will of God. We should trust in him and
confide in his grace. It makes him more happy than any other deed. He wants us to love him.

“Retreat beneath his wings,

And in His gace confide!
This more exalts the King of kings
Than all your works beside.”

 VALUE OF TIME:

As a true precursor of the romantic poets, he deals with the themes associated to ordinary
life. For instance, he wrote a poem, A Comparison, about the value of time. It is indeed a think
pertaining to common man's life. In this poem, he compares the flow of time to the flux of water.
He appears to be a staunch exponent of the idea that "Time and tide wait for none." He says
that both time and water flow in one direction. They are irreversible and irretrievable.

The lapse of time and rivers is the same,

Both speed their journey with a restless stream;

SHEHRYAR RIAZ
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WILLIAM COWPER LONG QUESTIONS

He says that time plays the most important role in life. It is the most wonderful and
practical thing. It has no beginning and no end. All things are born on time, grown on time and
die on time. Man cannot have command on time, nor can he analyze and criticize it. It is very
crucial that he understands the value of time and manage it effectively; otherwise, time can
create an enormous impact on his life. He needs to comprehend and regard the value of time by
not wasting it.

No wealth can bribe, no prayers persuade to stay;

Alike irrevocable both when past.

 CONCLUSION:

William Cowper was an evangelical Protestant and believed in the idea of spiritual rebirth
through spreading the Christian message. He tried to spread this message through his poetry. His
poetry was mostly dedicated to God but he has also dealt with some other themes like value of
time and abolitionism. These themes resonated with the people of that time and made him “the
best modern poet”.

SHEHRYAR RIAZ
Email : [email protected]