rse, which gave its origin to his
most famous poem, _The Task_. Before it was _pub._, however, the intimacy
had, apparently owing to some little feminine jealousies, been broken
off. _The Task_ was _pub._ in 1785, and met with immediate and
distinguished success. Although not formally or professedly, it was, in
fact, the beginning of an uprising against the classical school of
poetry, and the founding of a new school in which nature was the teacher.
As Dr. Stopford Brooke points out, "Cowper is the first of the poets who
loves Nature entirely for her own sake," and in him "the idea of Mankind
as a whole is fully formed." About this time he resumed his friendship
with his cousin, Lady Hesketh, and, encouraged by her, he began his
translation of _Homer_, which appeared in 1791. Before this he had
removed with Mrs. U. to the village of Weston Underwood. His health had
again given way; and in 1791 Mrs. U. became paralytic, and the object of
his assiduous and affectionate care. A settled gloom with occasional
brighter intervals was now falling upon him. He strove to fight it by
engaging in various translations, and in revising his _Homer_, and
undertaking a new ed. of Milton, which last was, however, left
unfinished. In 1794 a pension of L300 was conferred upon him, and in 1795
he removed with Mrs. U., now a helpless invalid, to East Dereham. Mrs. U.
_d._ in the following year, and three years later his own death released
him from his heavy burden of trouble and sorrow. His last poem was _The
Castaway_, which, with its darkness almost of despair, shows no loss of
intellectual or poetic power. In addition to his reputation as a poet C.
has that of being among the very best of English letter-writers, and in
this he shows, in an even easier and more unstudied manner, the same
command of pure idiomatic English, the same acute observation, and the
same mingling of gentle humour and melancholy. In literature C. is the
connecting link between the classical school of Pope and the natural
school of Burns, Crabbe, and Wordsworth, having, however, much more in
common with the latter.

SUMMARY.--_B._ 1731, _ed._ Westminster School, entered Middle Temple and
called to the Bar, 1754, appointed Clerk of Journals of House of Lords,
but mind gave way 1763, lives with the Unwins, became intimate with J.
Newton and with him writes _Olney Hymns_, _pub._ _Poems_ (_Progress of
Error_, etc.), 1782, _Task_ 1785, _Homer_ 1791, _d._ 1731.

The stand