the Week of Proper 26 / Ordinary 31
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Bible Encyclopedias
Cowper, William
The Nuttall Encyclopedia
or A popular English poet, born at Great Berkhampstead, Hertford, of noble lineage; lost his mother at six, and cherished the memory of her all his days; of a timid, sensitive nature, suffered acutely from harsh usage at school; read extensively in the classics; trained for and called to the bar; was appointed at 32 a clerk to the House of Lords; qualifying for the duties of the appointment proved too much for him, and he became insane; when he recovered, he retired from the world to Huntingdon beside a brother, where he formed an intimacy with a family of the name of Unwin, a clergyman in the place; on Mr. Unwin's death he removed with the family to Olney, in Buckinghamshire, where he lived as a recluse and associated with the Rev. John Newton and Mrs. Unwin; shortly after he fell insane again, and continued so for two years; on his recovery he took to gardening and composing poems, his first the "Olney Hymns," the melancholy being charmed away by the conversation of a Lady Austin, who came to live in the neighbourhood; it was she who suggested his greatest poem, the "Task"; then followed other works, change of scene and associates, the death of Mrs. Unwin, and the gathering of a darker and darker cloud, till he passed away peacefully; it is interesting to note that it is to this period his "Lines to Mary Unwin" and his "Mother's Picture" belong (1731-1800).
Public Domain.
Wood, James, ed. Entry for 'Cowper, William'. The Nuttall Encyclopedia. https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/nut/c/cowper-william.html. Frederick Warne & Co Ltd. London. 1900.
