Quote

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
Carry
Swans
Birth
Milton
Heard
Lamp
Asks
Lamps
Age
Ages
Elapsed
Nature
Length
Lengths
Give
Unknown
Swan
Giving
Appear
Homer

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The bud may have a bitter taste, But sweet will be the flower.
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Unmissed but by his dogs and by his groom.
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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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To see the Law by Christ fulfilled, And hear His pardoning voice Changes a slave into a child, And duty into choice.
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Made poetry a mere mechanic art.
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Religion! what treasure untold resides in that heavenly word!
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Forgot the blush that virgin fears impart To modest cheeks, and borrowed one from art.
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Blest be the art that can immortalize,--the art that baffles time's tyrannic claim to quench it.
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But slaves that once conceive the glowing thought Of freedom, in that hope itself possess All that the contest calls for spirit, strength, The scorn of danger, and united hearts, The surest presage of the good they seek.
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All affectation 'tis my perfect scorn Object of my implacable disgust.
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Elegant as simplicity, and warm As ecstasy.
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Knowledge and wisdom, far from being one, Have oft-times no connection. Knowledge dwells In heads replete with thoughts of other men Wisdom in minds attentive to their own.
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Reasoning at every step he treads, Man yet mistakes his way, Whilst meaner things, whom instinct leads, Are rarely known to stray.
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Our love is principle, and has its root In reason, is judicious, manly, free.
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But many a crime deemed innocent on earth Is registered in Heaven and these no doubt Have each their record, with a curse annex'd.
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Far happier are the dead methinks than they who look for death and fear it every day.
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Nature is a good name for an effect whose cause is God.
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Th' embroid'ry of poetic dreams.
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The only amaranthine flower on earth is virtue the only lasting treasure, truth.
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The man that dares traduce, because he can with safety to himself, is not a man.
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