Selected Poems of William Cowper
Date: 0101-01-01 00:00:00+00:00
Keywords: Poetry; Year 9

Selected Poems
of

William Cowper

1731-1800

1
Light Shining out of Darkness

God moves in a mysterious way,

His wonders to perform;

He plants his footsteps in the sea,

And rides upon the storm.

Deep in unfathomable mines

Of never-failing skill,

He treasures up his bright designs,

And works his sov’reign will.

Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take,

The clouds ye so much dread

Are big with mercy, and shall break

In blessings on your head.

Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,

But trust him for his grace;

Behind a frowning providence

He hides a smiling face.

His purposes will ripen fast,

Unfolding ev’ry hour;

The bud may have a bitter taste,

But sweet will be the flow’r.

Blind unbelief is sure to err,

And scan his work in vain;

God is his own interpreter,

And he will make it plain.

2
On the Grasshopper

Happy songster, perch’d above,

On the summit of the grove,

Whom a dewdrop cheers to sing

With the freedom of a king!

From thy perch survey the fields

Where prolific nature yields

Nought that, willingly as she,

Man surrenders not to thee.

For hostility or hate

None thy pleasures can create.

Thee it satisfies to sing

Sweetly the return of spring,

Herald of the genial hours,

Harming neither herbs nor flowers.

Therefore man thy voice attends

Gladly,—thou and he are friends;

Nor thy never-ceasing strains

Phoebus or the Muse disdains

As too simple or too long,

For themselves inspire the song.

Earth-born, bloodless, undecaying,

Ever singing, sporting, playing,

What has nature else to show

Godlike in its kind as thou?

3
The Lord Will Provide

Gen 12 (From The Olney Hymns)

The saints should never be dismay’d,

Nor sink in hopeless fear;

For when they least expect his aid,

The Saviour will appear.

This Abraham found: he raised the knife;

God saw, and said, “Forbear!

Yon ram shall yield his meaner life;

Behold the victim there.”

Once David seem’d Saul’s certain prey;

But hark! the foe’s at hand;

Saul turns his arms another way,

To save the invaded land.

When Jonah sunk beneath the wave,

He thought to rise no more;

But God prepared a fish to save,

And bear him to the shore.

Blest proofs of power and grace divine,

That meet us in his word!

May every deep-felt care of mine

Be trusted with the Lord.

Wait for his seasonable aid,

And though it tarry, wait:

The promise may be long delay’d,

But cannot come too late.

4
Vanity of the World

(From The Olney Hymns)

God gives his mercies to be spent;

Your hoard will do your soul no good;

Gold is a blessing only lent,

Repaid by giving others food.

The world’s esteem is but a bribe,

To buy their peace you sell your own;

The slave of a vain-glorious tribe,

Who hate you while they make you known.

The joy that vain amusements give,

Oh! sad conclusion that it brings!

The honey of a crowded hive,

Defended by a thousand stings.

’Tis thus the world rewards the fools

That live upon her treacherous smiles:

She leads them blindfold by her rules,

And ruins all whom she beguiles.

God knows the thousands who go down

From pleasure into endless woe;

And with a long despairing groan

Blaspheme their Maker as they go.

O fearful thought! be timely wise:

Delight but in a Saviour’s charms,

And God shall take you to the skies,

Embraced in everlasting arms.

5
The House of Prayer

Mark 11 (From The Olney Hymns)

Thy mansion is the Christian’s heart,

O Lord, thy dwelling-place secure!

Bid the unruly throng depart,

And leave the consecrated door.

Devoted as it is to thee,

A thievish swarm frequents the place;

They steal away my joys from me,

And rob my Saviour of his praise.

There, too, a sharp designing trade

Sin, Satan, and the world maintain;

Nor cease to press me, and persuade

To part with ease, and purchase pain.

I know them, and I hate their din,

Am weary of the bustling crowd;

But while their voice is heard within,

I cannot serve thee as I would.

Oh for the joy thy presence gives,

What peace shall reign when thou art here!

Thy presence makes this den of thieves

A calm delightful house of prayer.

And if thou make thy temple shine,

Yet self-abased, will I adore;

The gold and silver are not mine,

I give thee what was thine before.

6
Contentment

Philippians 4
(From The Olney Hymns)

Fierce passions discompose the mind,

As tempests vex the sea:

But calm content and peace we find,

When, Lord, we turn to thee.

In vain by reason and by rule

We try to bend the will;

For none but in the Saviour’s school

Can learn the heavenly skill.

Since at his feet my soul has sat,

His gracious words to hear,

Contented with my present state,

I cast on him my care.

“Art thou a sinner, soul?” he said,

“Then how canst thou complain?

How light thy troubles here, if weigh’d

With everlasting pain!

“If thou of murmuring wouldst be cured,

Compare thy griefs with mine;

Think what my love for thee endured,

And thou wilt not repine.

“’Tis I appoint thy daily lot,

And I do all things well;

Thou soon shalt leave this wretched spot,

And rise with me to dwell.

“In life my grace shall strength supply,

Proportion’d to thy day;

At death thou still shalt find me nigh,

To wipe thy tears away.

Thus I, who once my wretched days

In vain repinings spent,

Taught in my Saviour’s school of grace,

Have learnt to be content.

7
The Light and Glory of the Word

(From The Olney Hymns)

The Spirit breathes upon the Word,

And brings the truth to sight;

Precepts and promises afford

A sanctifying light.

A glory gilds the sacred page,

Majestic like the sun;

It gives a light to every age,

It gives, but borrows none.

The hand that gave it still supplies

The gracious light and heat:

His truths upon the nations rise,

They rise, but never set.

Let everlasting thanks be thine,

For such a bright display,

As makes a world of darkness shine

With beams of heavenly day.

My soul rejoices to pursue

The steps of him I love,

Till glory breaks upon my view

In brighter worlds above.

8
Prayer for Patience

(From
The Olney Hymns)

Lord, who hast suffer’d all for me,

My peace and pardon to procure,

The lighter cross I bear for thee,

Help me with patience to endure.

The storm of loud repining hush,

I would in humble silence mourn;

Why should the unburnt though burning bush,

Be angry as the crackling thorn?

Man should not faint at thy rebuke,

Like Joshua falling on his face,

When the curst thing that Achan took

Brought Israel into just disgrace.

Perhaps some golden wedge suppress’d,

Some secret sin offends my God;

Perhaps that Babylonish vest,

Self-righteousness, provokes the rod.

Ah! were I buffeted all day,

Mock’d, crown’d with thorns, and spit upon;

I yet should have no right to say,

My great distress is mine alone.

Let me not angrily declare

No pain was ever sharp like mine;

Nor murmur at the cross I bear,

But rather weep, remembering thine.

9
Submission

(From The Olney
Hymns)

O Lord, my best desire fulfil,

And help me to resign

Life, health, and comfort to thy will,

And make thy pleasure mine.

Why should I shrink at thy command,

Whose love forbids my fears?

Or tremble at the gracious hand

That wipes away my tears?

No, let me rather freely yield

What most I prize to thee;

Who never hast a good withheld,

Or wilt withhold, from me.

Thy favour, all my journey through,

Thou art engaged to grant;

What else I want, or think I do,

’Tis better still to want.

Wisdom and mercy guide my way,

Shall I resist them both?

A poor blind creature of a day,

And crush’d before the moth!

But ah! my inward spirit cries,

Still bind me to thy sway;

Else the next cloud that veils the skies,

Drives all these thoughts away.

10
Love Constraining to Obedience

(From The Olney Hymns)

No strength of nature can suffice

To serve the Lord aright:

And what she has she misapplies,

For want of clearer light.

How long beneath the law I lay

In bondage and distress!

I toil’d the precept to obey,

But toil’d without success.

Then, to abstain from outward sin

Was more than I could do;

Now, if I feel its power within,

I feel I hate it too.

Then, all my servile works were done

A righteousness to raise;

Now, freely chosen in the Son,

I freely choose his ways.

“What shall I do,” was then the word,

“That I may worthier grow?”

“What shall I render to the Lord?”

Is my inquiry now.

To see the law by Christ fulfill’d,

And hear his pardoning voice,

Changes a slave into a child,

And duty into choice.

11
Hatred of Sin

(From The
Olney Hymns)

Holy Lord God! I love thy truth,

Nor dare thy least commandment slight;

Yet pierced by sin, the serpent’s tooth,

I mourn the anguish of the bite.

But, though the poison lurks within,

Hope bids me still with patience wait;

Till death shall set me free from sin,

Free from the only thing I hate.

Had I a throne above the rest,

Where angels and archangels dwell,

One sin, unslain, within my breast,

Would make that heaven as dark as hell.

The prisoner, sent to breathe fresh air,

And bless’d with liberty again,

Would mourn, were he condemn’d to wear

One link of all his former chain.

But, oh! no foe invades the bliss,

When glory crowns the Christian’s head;

One view of Jesus as he is

Will strike all sin for ever dead.

12
On Mrs. Montague’s Feather-Hangings

The birds put off their every hue

To dress a room for Montagu.

The peacock sends his heavenly dyes,

His rainbows and his starry eyes;

The pheasant plumes, which round enfold

His mantling neck with downy gold;

The cock his arch’d tail’s azure show;

And, river-blanch’d, the swan his snow.

All tribes beside of Indian name,

That glossy shine, or vivid flame,

Where rises, and where sets the day,

Whate’er they boast of rich and gay,

Contribute to the gorgeous plan,

Proud to advance it all they can.

This plumage neither dashing shower,

Nor blasts, that shake the dripping bower,

Shall drench again or discompose,

But, screen’d from every storm that blows,

It boasts a splendour ever new,

Safe with protecting Montagu.

To the same patroness resort,

Secure of favour at her court,

Strong Genius, from whose forge of thought

Forms rise, to quick perfection wrought,

Which, though new-born, with vigour move,

Like Pallas springing arm’d from Jove—

Imagination scattering round

Wild roses over furrow’d ground,

Which Labour of his frown beguile,

And teach Philosophy a smile—

Wit flashing on Religion’s side,

Whose fires, to sacred truth applied,

The gem, though luminous before,

Obtrude on human notice more,

Like sunbeams on the golden height

Of some tall temple playing bright—

Well tutor’d Learning, from his books

Dismiss’d with grave, not haughty, looks,

Their order on his shelves exact,

Not more harmonious or compact

Than that to which he keeps confined

The various treasures of his mind—

All these to Montagu’s repair,

Ambitious of a shelter there.

There Genius, Learning, Fancy, Wit,

Their ruffled plumage calm refit

(For stormy troubles loudest roar

Around their flight who highest soar),

And in her eye, and by her aid,

Shine safe without a fear to fade.

She thus maintains divided sway

With yon bright regent of the day;

The Plume and Poet both we know

Their lustre to his influence owe;

And she the works of Phœbus aiding,

Both Poet saves and Plume from fading.

13
Human Frailty

Weak and irresolute is man;

The purpose of to-day,

Woven with pains into his plan,

To-morrow rends away.

The bow well bent, and smart the spring,

Vice seems already slain;

But passion rudely snaps the string,

And it revives again.

Some foe to his upright intent

Finds out his weaker part;

Virtue engages his assent,

But Pleasure wins his heart.

’Tis here the folly of the wise

Through all his art we view;

And, while his tongue the charge denies,

His conscience owns it true.

Bound on a voyage of awful length

And dangers little known,

A stranger to superior strength,

Man vainly trusts his own.

But oars alone can ne’er prevail

To reach the distant coast;

The breath of Heaven must swell the sail,

Or all the toil is lost.

14
A Fable

A raven, while with glossy breast

Her new-laid eggs she fondly press’d,

And, on her wicker-work high mounted,

Her chickens prematurely counted

(A fault philosophers might blame,

If quite exempted from the same),

Enjoy’d at ease the genial day;

’Twas April, as the bumpkins say,

The legislature call’d it May.

But suddenly a wind, as high

As ever swept a winter sky,

Shook the young leaves about her ears,

And fill’d her with a thousand fears,

Lest the rude blast should snap the bough,

And spread her golden hopes below.

But just at eve the blowing weather

And all her fears were hush’d together:

And now, quoth poor unthinking Ralph.

’Tis over, and the brood is safe;

(For ravens, though, as birds of omen,

They teach both conjurors and old women

To tell us what is to befall,

Can’t prophesy themselves at all.)

The morning came, when neighbour Hodge,

Who long had mark’d her airy lodge,

And destined all the treasure there

A gift to his expecting fair,

Climb’d like a squirrel to his dray,

And bore the worthless prize away.

Moral:

’Tis Providence alone secures

In every change both mine and yours:

Safety consists not in escape

From dangers of a frightful shape;

An earthquake may be bid to spare

The man that’s strangled by a hair.

Fate steals along with silent tread,

Found oft’nest in what least we dread,

Frowns in the storm with angry brow,

But in the sunshine strikes the blow.

15
The Nightingale and Glowworm

A nightingale, that all day long

Had cheer’d the village with his song,

Nor yet at eve his note suspended,

Nor yet when eventide was ended,

Began to feel, as well he might,

The keen demands of appetite;

When, looking eagerly around,

He spied far off, upon the ground,

A something shining in the dark,

And knew the glowworm by his spark;

So stooping down from hawthorn top,

He thought to put him in his crop.

The worm, aware of his intent,

Harangued him thus, right eloquent—

Did you admire my lamp, quoth he,

As much as I your minstrelsy,

You would abhor to do me wrong

As much as I to spoil your song;

For ’twas the self-same Power divine

Taught you to sing, and me to shine;

That you with music, I with light,

Might beautify and cheer the night.

The songster heard his short oration,

And, warbling out his approbation,

Released him, as my story tells,

And found a supper somewhere else.

Hence jarring sectaries may learn

Their real interest to discern;

That brother should not war with brother,

And worry and devour each other;

But sing and shine by sweet consent,

Till life’s poor transient night is spent,

Respecting in each other’s case

The gifts of nature and of grace.

Those Christians best deserve the name

Who studiously make peace their aim;

Peace both the duty and the prize

Of him that creeps and him that flies.

Table of Contents

- 1 - Light Shining out of Darkness
- 2 - On the Grasshopper
- 3 - The Lord Will Provide
- 4 - Vanity of the World
- 5 - The House Of Prayer
- 6 - Contentment
- 7 - The Light and Glory of the Word
- 8 - Prayer for Patience
- 9 - Submission
- 10 - Love Constraining to Obedience
- 11 - Hatred of Sin
- 12 - On Mrs. Montague’s Feather-Hangings
- 13 - Human Frailty
- 14 - A Fable
- 15 - The Nightingale and Glowworm