William Cowper: Selected Poetry and Prose

William Cowper, converted under a heterodox but eloquent early Methodist preacher, began a rocky spiritual journey which was to rise to great heights, yet, even to the end of his life, intermittently descended to abysmal depths of psychological torment and despair. Most of his poetry was written in rustic retreats to which he was forced by his persistent emotional fragility, and some of the best of it was written under the restorative pastoral counselling of ("Amazing Grace") John Newton. Y...