uddenly "John Gilpin," after a long sleep in the Public Advertiser,
rode triumphant through the town. A favourite actor of the day was
giving recitations at Freemason's Hall. A man of letters, Richard
Sharp, who had read and liked "John Gilpin," pointed out to the actor
how well it would suit his purpose. The actor was John Henderson,
whose Hamlet, Shylock, Richard III., and Falstaff were the most popular
of his day. He died suddenly in 1785, at the age of thirty-eight, and
it was thus in the last year of his life that his power of recitation
drew "John Gilpin" from obscurity and made it the nine days' wonder of
the town. Pictures of John Gilpin abounded in all forms. He figured
on pocket-handkerchiefs. When the publisher asked for a few more pages
to his volume of "The Task," Cowper gave him as makeweights an "Epistle
to Joseph Hill," his "Tirocinium," and, a little doubtfully, "John
Gilpin." So the book was published in June, 1785; was sought by many
because it was by the author of "John Gilpin," and at once won
recognition. The preceding volume had not made Cowper famous. "The
Task" at once gave him his place among the poets.

Cowper's "Task" is to this day, except Wordsworth's "Excursion," the
best purely didactic poem in the English language. The "Sofa" stands
only as a point of departure:--it suits a gouty limb; but as the poet
is not gouty, he is up and off. He is off for a walk with Mrs. Unwin
in the country about Olney. He dwells on the rural sights and rural
sounds, taking first the inanimate sounds, then the animate. In muddy
winter weather he walks alone, finds a solitary cottage, and draws from
it comment upon the false sentiment of solitude. He describes the walk
to the park at Weston Underwood, the prospect from the hilltop, touches
upon his privilege in having a key of the gate, describes the avenues
of trees, the wilderness, the grove, and the sound of the thresher's
flail then suggests to him that all live by energy, best ease is after
toil. He compares the luxury of art with wholesomeness of Nature free
to all, that brings health to the sick, joy to the returned seafarer.
Spleen vexes votaries of artificial life. True gaiety is for the
innocent. So thought flows on, and touches in its course the vital
questions of a troubled time. "The Task" appeared four years before
the outbreak of the French Revolution, and is in many passages not less
significant of rising storms than the "Excursion"