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Ages elapsed ere Homer's lamp appear'd, And ages ere the Mantuan swan was heard: To carry nature lengths unknown before, To give a Milton birth, ask'd ages more.

William Cowper

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William Cowper
Age: 68 †
Born: 1731
Born: November 26
Died: 1800
Died: April 25
Hymnwriter
Poet
Poet Lawyer
Translator
Writer
Berkhamsted
Hertfordshire
Nature
Length
Lengths
Give
Unknown
Swan
Giving
Appear
Homer
Carry
Swans
Birth
Milton
Heard
Lamp
Asks
Lamps
Age
Ages
Elapsed

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No wisdom that she may gain by experience and reflection hereafter, will compensate the loss of her present hilarity.
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Philologists, who chase A painting syllable through time and space Start it at home, and hunt it in the dark, To Gaul, to Greece, and into Noah's Ark.
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[My kitten] is dressed in a tortoise-shell suit, and I know you will delight in her.
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Oh to have a lodge in some vast wilderness. Where rumors of oppression and deceit, of unsuccessful and successful wars may never reach me anymore.
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For 'tis a truth well known to most, That whatsoever thing is lost, We seek it, ere it comes to light, In every cranny but the right.
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His wit invites you by his looks to come, But when you knock, it never is at home.
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... she, that will with kittens jest, Should bear a kitten's joke.
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They fix attention, heedless of your pain, With oaths like rivets forced into the brain And e'en when sober truth prevails throughout, They swear it, till affirmance breeds a doubt.
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The Spirit breathes upon the Word and brings the truth to sight.
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The still small voice is wanted.
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O Winter! ruler of the inverted year, . . . I crown thee king of intimate delights, Fireside enjoyments, home-born happiness, And all the comforts that the lowly roof Of undisturbed Retirement, and the hours Of long uninterrupted evening, know.
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Religion Caesar never knew Thy posterity shall sway, Where his eagles never flew, None as invincible as they.
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I am monarch of all I survey, My right there is none to dispute, From the centre all round to the sea, I am lord of the fowl and the brute.
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Fanaticism, the false fire of an overheated mind.
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A tale should be judicious, clear, succinct The language plain, and incidents well link'd Tell not as new what ev'ry body knows and, new or old, still hasten to a close.
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Th' embroid'ry of poetic dreams.
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Oh, popular applause! what heart of man Is proof against thy sweet seducing charms? The wisest and the best feel urgent need Of all their caution in thy gentlest gales But swell'd into a gust--who then, alas! With all his canvas set, and inexpert, And therefore, heedless, can withstand thy power?
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A lawyer's dealings should be just and fair Honesty shines with great advantage there.
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Necessity invented stools, Convenience next suggested elbow-chairs, And luxury the accomplish'd Sofa last.
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Spring hangs her infant blossoms on the trees, Rock'd in the cradle of the western breeze.
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