William Cowper
Poet and hymnodist, 1731-1800
Cited as Cowper. — 304 quotations
Abdominous
Gorgonius sits, abdominous and wan, Like a fat squab upon a Chinese fan.
Accomplishment
Accomplishments have taken virtue's place, And wisdom falls before exterior grace.
Accredit
His censure will . . . accredit his praises.
Act
Uplifted hands that at convenient times Could act extortion and the worst of crimes.
To show the world how Garrick did not act.
Adept
Beaus adept in everything profound.
Adolescent
Schools, unless discipline were doubly strong, Detain their adolescent charge too long.
Agglomerate
Where he builds the agglomerated pile.
Agile
Shaking it with agile hand.
Agog
All agog to dash through thick and thin.
Amaranthine
They only amaranthine flower on earth Is virtue.
Ambitious
Studious of song, and yet ambitious not to sing in vain.
Amity
To live on terms of amity with vice.
Anarchy
Spread anarchy and terror all around.
Antlered
The antlered stag.
Aquiline
Terribly arched and aquiline his nose.
Arbiter
For Jove is arbiter of both to man.
Arouse
Grasping his spear, forth issued to arouse His brother, mighty sovereign on the host.
Arras
Stateliest couches, with rich arras spread.
Arrear
For much I dread due payment by the Greeks Of yesterday's arrear.
Artificer
The great Artificer of all that moves.
Artless
O, how unlike the complex works of man, Heaven's easy, artless, unencumbered plan!
Asperse
With blackest crimes aspersed.
Assail
No rude noise mine ears assailing.
Assimilate
Fast falls a fleecy; the downy flakes Assimilate all objects.
Astrut
Inflated and astrut with self-conceit.
Attach
God . . . by various ties attaches man to man.
Attain
To see your trees attain to the dignity of timber.
Auctioneer
Estates . . . advertised and auctioneered away.
Awaken
[He] is dispatched Already to awaken whom thou nam'st.
Aware
Aware of nothing arduous in a task They never undertook.
Awe
His frown was full of terror, and his voice Shook the delinquent with such fits of awe.
Bacchanalian
Even bacchanalian madness has its charms.
Baffle
The art that baffles time's tyrannic claim.
Balance
And hung a bottle on each side To make his balance true.
Bemaze
Intellects bemazed in endless doubt.
Benefactress
His benefactress blushes at the deed.
Beneficence
And whose beneficence no charge exhausts.
Bergamot
The better hand . . . gives the nose its bergamot.
Bespangle
The grass . . . is all bespangled with dewdrops.
Bestow
Empire is on us bestowed.
Billow
Whom the winds waft where'er the billows roll.
Birthday
Those barbarous ages past, succeeded next The birthday of invention.
Blazon
To blazon his own worthless name.
Blear
That tickling rheums Should ever tease the lungs and blear the sight.
Blush
He would stroke The head of modest and ingenuous worth, That blushed at its own praise.
Bounteous
But O, thou bounteous Giver of all good.
Bourn
Where the land slopes to its watery bourn.
Box
Tight boxes neatly sashed.
Brier
The thorns and briers of reproof.
Brine
Not long beneath the whelming brine . . . he lay.
Burly
Burly and big, and studious of his ease.
Cage
In his cage, like parrot fine and gay.
Call
The baker's punctual call.
Captain
A trainband captain eke was he.
Cascade
Now murm'ring soft, now roaring in cascade.
Cashier
Connections formed for interest, and endeared By selfish views, [are] censured and cashiered.
Chariot
First moved the chariots, after whom the foot.
Chase
Philologists, who chase A panting syllable through time and place.
Cherup
He cherups brisk ear-erecting steed.
Churchgoing
The sound of the churchgoing bell.
Churlish
Half mankind maintain a churlish strife.
Circumvention
A school in which he learns sly circumvention.
Cleave
Sophistry cleaves close to and protects Sin's rotten trunk, concealing its defects.
Closet
Bedlam's closeted and handcuffed charge.
Clown
The clown, the child of nature, without guile.
Cobweb
I can not but lament thy splendid wit Entangled in the cobwebs of the schools.
Coeval
Oaks coeval spread a mournful shade.
Cogent
The tongue whose strains were cogent as commands, Revered at home, and felt in foreign lands.
Combine
Earthly sounds, though sweet and well combined.
Compliment
Many a compliment politely penned.
Concert
Let us in concert to the season sing.
Confabulate
I shall not ask Jean Jaques Rousseau If birds confabulate or no.
Confectionary
The biscuit or confectionary plum.
Confirmation
Their blood is shed In confirmation of the noblest claim.
Consequence
A sense of your own worth and consequence.
Convenience
Thus necessity invented stools, Convenience next suggested elbow chairs.
Conversable
While young, humane, conversable, and kind.
Conversant
Conversant only with the ways of men.
Country
God made the covatry, and man made the town.
Coy
Coy, and difficult to win.
Cradle
The cradle that received thee at thy birth.
Cramp
Crippling his pleasures with the cramp of fear.
Creature
And most attractive is the fair result Of thought, the creature of a polished mind.
Credit
John Gilpin was a citizen Of credit and renown.
Creek
Each creek and cavern of the dangerous shore.
Creeping
Casements lined with creeping herbs.
Cross
Tis where the cross is preached.
Dainty
[A table] furnished plenteously with bread, And dainties, remnants of the last regale.
Delicacy
You know your mother's delicacy in this point.
Dense
To replace the cloudy barrier dense.
Dewy
Dewy sleep ambrosial.
Dim
Now set the sun, and twilight dimmed the ways.
Disembark
And, making fast their moorings, disembarked.
Dishevel
Like the fair flower disheveled in the wind.
Disincline
To social scenes by nature disinclined.
Dismiss
Dismiss their cares when they dismiss their flock.
Disperse
Two lions, in the still, dark night, A herd of beeves disperse.
Disturb
Preparing to disturb With all-cofounding war the realms above.
Divulge
Divulge not such a love as mine.
Dream
And still they dream that they shall still succeed.
Ecclesiastical
Every circumstance of ecclesiastical order and discipline was an abomination.
Effect
Resolving all events, with their effects And manifold results, into the will And arbitration wise of the Supreme.
Eke
A trainband captain eke was he Of famous London town.
Enslave
Pleasure admitted in undue degree Enslaves the will.
Equipaged
Well dressed, well bred. Well equipaged, is ticket good enough.
Erratum
A single erratum may knock out the brains of a whole passage.
Estimate
No; dear as freedom is, and in my heart's Just estimation prized above all price.
Exception
Such rare exceptions, shining in the dark, Prove, rather than impeach, the just remark.
Excursion
I am not in a scribbling mood, and shall therefore make no excursions.
Exemplify
He did but . . . exemplify the principles in which he had been brought up.
Exercise
I wear my trusty sword, When I do exercise.
Exit
Sighs for his exit, vulgarly called death.
Fashion
Ingenious art . . . Steps forth to fashion and refine the age.
Flesh
There is no flesh in man's obdurate heart.
Forbear
The kindest and the happiest pair Will find occasion to forbear.
Frank
I have said so much, that, if I had not a frank, I must burn my letter and begin again.
Fulsome
And lest the fulsome artifice should fail Themselves will hide its coarseness with a veil.
Fume
They demi-deify and fume him so.
Game
But war's a game, which, were their subject wise, Kings would not play at.
Giddy
Young heads are giddy and young hearts are warm.
Girdle
From the world's girdle to the frozen pole.
Glance
How fleet is a glance of the mind.
Gorse
The common, overgrown with fern, and rough With prickly gorse.
Grieve
The maidens grieved themselves at my concern.
Gulp
He does not swallow, but he gulps it down.
Hassock
And knees and hassocks are well nigh divorced.
Hindrance
What various hindrances we meet.
Homeborn
Fireside enjoyments, homeborn happiness.
Hoy
The hoy went to London every week.
Hyacinthine
His curling locks like hyacinthine flowers.
Impression
The stamp and clear impression of good sense.
Imprint
Nature imprints upon whate'er we see, That has a heart and life in it, “Be free.”
Impunity
Heaven, though slow to wrath, Is never with impunity defied.
In
Sounds inharmonious in themselves, and harsh.
Inadvertent
An inadvertent step may crush the snail That crawls at evening in the public path.
Inclemency
The rude inclemency of wintry skies.
Independent
A dry, but independent crust.
Indicate
That turns and turns to indicate From what point blows the weather.
Indiscretion
Past indiscretion is a venial crime.
Indistinct
Their views, indeed, are indistinct and dim.
Indolence
Life spent in indolence, and therefore sad.
Inebriate
The cups That cheer but not inebriate.
Inert
Even the favored isles . . . Can boast but little virtue; and, inert Through plenty, lose in morals what they gain In manners -- victims of luxurious ease.
Infest
To poison vermin that infest his plants.
Inflated
Inflated and astrut with self-conceit.
Inflict
The persecution and the pain That man inflicts on all inferior kinds.
Infusion
Sips meek infusion of a milder herb.
Ingenious
Thus men go wrong with an ingenious skill.
Ingenuity
He gives . . . To artist ingenuity and skill.
Inharmonious
Sounds inharmonious in themselves and harsh.
Inhospitable
Have you no touch of pity, that the poor Stand starved at your inhospitable door?
Inimitable
Performing such inimitable feats.
Inland
From inland regions to the distant main.
Inquirer
Expert inquirers after truth.
Inquisitive
This folio of four pages [a newspaper], happy work! Which not even critics criticise; that holds Inquisitive attention, while I read.
Insanity
Without grace The heart's insanity admits no cure.
Inseparably
And cleaves through life inseparably close.
Insinuation
I scorn your coarse insinuation.
Integrity
Their sober zeal, integrity, and worth.
Intellected
In body, and in bristles, they became As swine, yet intellected as before.
Intended
They drew a curse from an intended good.
Interlace
Severed into stripes That interlaced each other.
Interpose
Mountains interposed Make enemies of nations.
Long hid by interposing hill or wood.
Intersect
Lands intersected by a narrow frith Abhor each other.
Intertexture
Skirted thick with intertexture firm Of thorny boughs.
Intolerant
Religion, harsh, intolerant, austere, Parent of manners like herself severe.
Inure
The poor, inured to drudgery and distress.
Invent
Thus first Necessity invented stools.
Invert
Such reasoning falls like an inverted cone, Wanting its proper base to stand upon.
Invite
There no delusive hope invites despair.
Irresolute
Weak and irresolute is man.
Jockeyship
Where can at last his jockeyship retire?
Keen
Before the keen inquiry of her thought.
Key
You fall at once into a lower key.
Kick
A kick, that scarce would move a horse, May kill a sound divine.
Kingly
Leave kingly backs to cope with kingly cares.
Knot
Knots worthy of solution.
Lamp
Ages elapsed ere Homer's lamp appeared.
Law
His mind his kingdom, and his will his law.
Link
The link of brotherhood, by which One common Maker bound me to the kind.
Lodge
O for a lodge in some vast wilderness!
Longitude
Mine [shadow] spindling into longitude immense.
Magic
The painter's magic skill.
Man
Woman has, in general, much stronger propensity than man to the discharge of parental duties.
Mart
Where has commerce such a mart . . . as London?
Mistress
Now Mistress Gilpin (careful soul).
Moon
The crescent moon, the diadem of night.
Negotiate
He that negotiates between God and man Is God's ambassador.
O
Oh for a lodge in some vast wilderness!
Obdurate
There is no flesh in man's obdurate heart.
Occupation
Absence of occupation is not rest.
Or
If man's convenience, health, Or safety interfere, his rights and claims Are paramount.
Outmantle
And with poetic trappings grace thy prose, Till it outmantle all the pride of verse.
Pageant
We love the man, the paltry pageant you.
Palliate
To palliate dullness, and give time a shove.
Parcel
'Tis like a parcel sent you by the stage.
Parry
Vice parries wide The undreaded volley with a sword of straw.
Pedestal
Build him a pedestal, and say, “Stand there!”
Persuasion
My firm persuasion is, at least sometimes, That Heaven will weigh man's virtues and his crimes With nice attention.
Pert
The squirrel, flippant, pert, and full of play.
Pest
England's sufferings by that scourge, the pest.
Petulance
The lowering eye, the petulance, the frown.
Phalanx
The sheep recumbent, and the sheep that grazed, All huddling into phalanx, stood and gazed.
Pick
He picks clean teeth, and, busy as he seems With an old tavern quill, is hungry yet.
Pile
Velvet soft, or plush with shaggy pile.
Pilfer
And not a year but pilfers as he goes Some youthful grace that age would gladly keep.
Pinion
Her elbows pinioned close upon her hips.
Postpone
His praise postponed, and never to be paid.
Pounce
Stooped from his highest pitch to pounce a wren.
Present
My last, least offering, I present thee now.
Prevarication
The august tribunal of the skies, where no prevarication shall avail.
Prolix
With wig prolix, down flowing to his waist.
Proselyte
Fresh confidence the speculatist takes From every harebrained proselyte he makes.
Prurience
There is a prurience in the speech of some.
Pulpit
I say the pulpit (in the sober use Of its legitimate, peculiar powers) Must stand acknowledged, while the world shall stand, The most important and effectual guard, Support, and ornament of virtue's cause.
puzzle
They disentangle from the puzzled skein.
Queasy
Some seek, when queasy conscience has its qualms.
Readily
How readily we wish time spent revoked!
Recoverable
If I am recoverable, why am I thus?
Relapse
That task performed, [preachers] relapse into themselves.
Relish
I have a relish for moderate praise, because it bids fair to be judicious.
Remark
The cause, though worth the search, may yet elude Conjecture and remark, however shrewd.
Replete
In heads replete with thoughts of other men.
Reptile
An inadvertent step may crush the snail That crawls at evening in the public path; But he that has humanity, forewarned, Will tread aside, and let the reptile live.
Resupine
He spake, and, downward swayed, fell resupine, With his huge neck aslant.
Revolvency
Its own revolvency upholds the world.
Revolving
Revolving seasons, fruitless as they pass.
Rig
He little dreamt when he set out Of running such a rig.
Road
My hat and wig will soon be here, They are upon the road.
Round
The serpent Error twines round human hearts.
Rowel
With sounding whip, and rowels dyed in blood.
Sacramental
The sacramental host of God's elect.
Saddletree
For saddletree scarce reached had he, His journey to begin.
Sagacity
Some [brutes] show that nice sagacity of smell.
Saturate
Dries his feathers saturate with dew.
Scentless
The scentless and the scented rose.
Scoff
The scoff of withered age and beardless youth.
God's better gift they scoff at and refuse.
Scout
While the rat is on the scout.
Seclusion
O blest seclusion from a jarring world, which he, thus occupied, enjoys!
Shop
From shop to shop Wandering, and littering with unfolded silks The polished counter.
Side
To insure a side-box station at half price.
Simple
Thy simple fare and all thy plain delights.
Skull
Skulls that can not teach, and will not learn.
Slight
The wretch who slights the bounty of the skies.
Slipshod
The shivering urchin bending as he goes, With slipshod heels.
Sloping
The sloping land recedes into the clouds.
Smit
Smit with the beauty of so fair a scene.
Sofa
Let fall the curtains, wheel the sofa round.
Solitude
O Solitude! where are the charms That sages have seen in thy face?
Soul
Now mistress Gilpin (careful soul).
Spire
Tall spire from which the sound of cheerful bells Just undulates upon the listening ear.
Squab
Gorgonious sits abdominous and wan, Like a fat squab upon a Chinese fan.
Square
No works shall find acceptance . . . That square not truly with the Scripture plan.
Stack
But corn was housed, and beans were in the stack.
Step
Beware of desperate steps. The darkest day, Live till to-morrow, will have passed away.
Stint
His old stint -- three thousand pounds a year.
Stop
Stop, while ye may, suspend your mad career!
Stray
While meaner things, whom instinct leads, Are rarely known to stray.
Stride
God never meant that man should scale the heavens By strides of human wisdom.
Suburban
Suburban villas, highway-side retreats, . . . Delight the citizen.
Suit
To deal and shuffle, to divide and sort Her mingled suits and sequences.
Superannuation
The world itself is in a state of superannuation.
Susceptible
Candidates are . . . not very susceptible of affronts.
Suspense
Upon the ticklish balance of suspense.
Swarth
Grassy swarth, close cropped by nibbling sheep.
Syncope
Revely, and dance, and show, Suffer a syncope and solemn pause.
Tenure
All that seems thine own, Held by the tenure of his will alone.
Text
How oft, when Paul has served us with a text, Has Epictetus, Plato, Tully, preached!
Thing
Ye meads and groves, unconscious things!
Thistly
In such a world, so thorny, and where none Finds happiness unblighted, or, if found, Without some thistly sorrow at its side.
Thyme
Ankle deep in moss and flowery thyme.
Tinsel
O happy peasant! O unhappy bard! His the mere tinsel, hers the rich reward.
Tome
Tomes of fable and of dream.
Topmost
The nightngale may claim the topmost bough.
Town
God made the country, and man made the town.
Trainband
A trainband captain eke was he Of famous London town.
Treacherous
The treacherous smile, a mask for secret hate.
Tyro
The management of tyros of eighteen Is difficult.
Unbelief
Blind unbelief is sure to err, And scan his work in vain.
Unked
Weston is sadly unked without you.
Uprun
[A son] of matchless might, who, like a thriving plant, Upran to manhood.
Upsend
As when some island situate afar . . . Upsends a smoke to heaven.
Upstand
At once upstood the monarch, and upstood The wise Ulysses.
Use
I would, my son, that thou wouldst use the power Which thy discretion gives thee, to control And manage all.
Vandal
The Vandals of our isle, Sworn foes to sense and law.
Varied
The varied fields of science, ever new.
vivid
In dazzling streaks the vivid lightnings play.
Waif
A waif Desirous to return, and not received.
Weather
Peace to the artist whose ingenious thought Devised the weather house, that useful toy!
Wed
[Flowers] are wedded thus, like beauty to old age.
Welcome
When the glad soul is made Heaven's welcome guest.
What
With joy beyond what victory bestows.
Whiskered
Our forefathers, a grave, whiskered race.
Wisdom
Knowledge and wisdom, far from being one, Have ofttimes no connection. Knowledge dwells In heads replete with thoughts of other men; Wisdom, in minds attentive to their own. Knowledge, a rude, unprofitable mass, The mere materials with which wisdom builds, Till smoothed, and squared, and fitted to its place, Does but encumber whom it seems to enrich. Knowledge is proud that he has learned so much; Wisdom is humble that he knows no more.
Wither
States thrive or wither as moons wax and wane.
Wont
From childly wont and ancient use.
Worthy
The blood of ancient worthies in his veins.
Wreck
To the fair haven of my native home, The wreck of what I was, fatigued I come.
Wretch
Hovered thy spirit o'er thy sorrowing son, Wretch even then, life's journey just begun?
Zoneless
The reeling goddess with the zoneless waist.