William Cowper (1731-1800) was an English poet and hymn writer. Co-authored Olney Hymns with John Newton. Hymns he wrote include "The...
William Cowper (1731-1800) was an English poet and hymn
writer. Co-authored Olney Hymns with John Newton. Hymns he wrote include
"There is a Fountain Filled with Blood" and "O for a Closer Walk
with God."
William Cowper, one of the most popular poets and letter
writers of the English language, was born in Berkhampstead, Hertfordshire,
November 26, 1731. His father, Rev. John Cowper, was a chaplain to George II.
He spent ten years in Westminster School, and then began reading law, but
abandoned it for literature after a very brief practice. He became the most
distinguished poet of the English language in the latter half of the eighteenth
century. His poetic works are too numerous and too well known to need mention
here. His life is invested with a peculiar and sorrowful interest, owing to his
constitutional tendency to mental and moral despondency, which brought on
frequent attacks of insanity. His disappointment in not being permitted to
marry his
cousin added to his malady. His melancholia had come upon him and
placed its dark limitations upon his life before he went, in 1765, to live at
Huntingdon, where his association with and love for Mrs. Mary Unwin became one
of the tenderest and holiest attachments of his life. In 1767 he moved to
Olney, the home of Rev. John Newton. An intimate friendship between the two at
once began. Cowper was a constant and prayerful attendant upon Newton's Church
services, especially his cottage prayer meetings, for which nearly all of his
hymns were written at Newton's request. The Olney Hymns, 1779, was their joint
production, seventy-eight of them coming from Cowper. He also translated many
of the hymns of Madame Guyon, one of which is found in this volume. He died April
25, 1800, at East Dereham. He is regarded as the greatest letter writer in
English literature. None of his great poems show signs of melancholia, but
breathe a healthful and cheerful piety. No other great poet has written so many
hymns as he. His hymns give expression to sentiments of peace and gratitude, of
trust and submission, rather than of hope and joy. A plaintive and refined
tenderness runs through them all.
Hymns:
—A glory gilds the sacred page
—God moves in a mysterious way
—Hark, my soul, it is the Lord
—Hear what God the Lord hath
—Jesus, where'er thy people meet
—My Lord, how full of sweet content
—O for a closer walk with God
—Sometimes a light surprises
—There is a fountain filled with blood
—What various hindrances we meet
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