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COPYRIGHT, 1898

BY JAMES O. MURRAY

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

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PREFAC E.

THE time is not very remote when Cowper's poetry was classed with Dr. Young's Night Thoughts and Pollok's Course of Time. It was valued chiefly for its religious tone, and read mainly by religious people. His association with the Rev. John Newton, his hymns taken up at once by the Christian public and sung in all churches, added much to this vogue.

Later, however, Cowper's poetry has been appreciated by the literary class. The qualities in it which commended it so strongly to the so-called Evangelical School have had no hold on the critics. Rather have they been regarded as being detrimental to his poetic fame. But the study of the Task and some of his minor poems has disclosed to our most discerning criticism poetic qualities which link Cowper with the higher element in English poetry. That the most influential of French critics, Sainte-Beuve, should have recognized in him so rich and varied a poetic nature will strike with no surprise, students of his poetry.

As will be seen from the Introduction, there are elements in Cowper's life and surroundings which invest his work with peculiar interest. The personality of the poet, with all its sad and tender interest, will always attract some minds. Repelled as we are by the story of some poets' lives, the facts in Cowper's career from its beginning to its close only lend a higher fascination to his song in whatever key it may be pitched. It need scarcely be said also that an acquaintance with Cowper's inimitable letters will make us love his

poetry the more.

These letters are classics in English prose, and as such have their independent charm and value. Το know Cowper most truly and deeply, one should know his letters as well as his poetry. They reflect light, each on the other.

The accompanying volume is, however, devoted to selections from his poetry, excluding any of his translations. His Homer, as Matthew Arnold has shown, has little merit, and the translations from Madame Guyon and Vincent Bourne are hardly of enough weight to appear in a limited choice of his poems. The guiding principle in making up the present volume was to give the pupil a view of the true Cowper, and Cowper at his best. Some minor poems have been omitted of equal merit with those given. But they only exhibit the same type of poetic execution.

One reason for study of Cowper is found in his position as forerunner of the change in English poetry, imperfectly defined often as a change from the Classical to the Romantic School. Signs that the change was coming had indeed appeared long before Cowper sang, in Thompson's Seasons and the Odes of Collins and Gray. But not till Cowper and Burns were heard was it seen that the change had come, and Cowper had great part in bringing it on. Wordsworth was a far greater poet than Cowper. But Cowper heralded Wordsworth, not only in choice of poetic material, but also in the poetic treatment of Nature and Man. What Wordsworth found in the beautiful lake region, Cowper found before him in Olney, and along the banks of “slowwinding Ouse."

Perhaps our greatest debt to Cowper is found in his utterances which breathe so tender and deep a sympathy with man; with man in his lowlier estate and sufferings. Stopford Brooke, in his Theology of the English Poets, has done full justice to the Task, as embodying this new and deeper note

in our poetry. Wordsworth prolonged, perhaps deepened it, but it was first struck by Cowper. It was a noble service to literature thus rendered, and cannot well be overrated. The marvel is that it should have come from that solitary soul, so deeply sunk in glooms unutterable, so apart from all contact with society. But it is there, and the author of the well-known lines, "Slaves cannot breathe in England,” etc., should be studied by all who would know how large a part our literature has played in the progress of modern philanthropy.

No one can become familiar with the best things in Cowper's poetry without being conscious of the purity of tone which marks them. Doubtless there was too much asceticism, too morbid views of life, too much moralizing in some of his earlier poetry. But the Task is healthy in its spirit, and its poetic style is free from all that sickly intensity so often mistaken for poetic power. Its pathos strikes no false notes. All is simple, sincere, and genuine. high qualities, the best educators of a true taste. that can appreciate them will not easily be led any meretricious or fleshly school of poetry.

PRINCETON UNIVERSITY,
July 12, 1898.

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