William Cowper

William Cowper (26 November 1731 – 25 April 1800) was an English poet and Anglican hymnwriter.

Ann died giving birth to John on 7 November 1737.

His mother's death at such an early age troubled William deeply and was the subject of his poem "On the Receipt of My Mother's Picture", written more than fifty years later.

He grew close to her family in his early years.

He was particularly close with her brother Robert and his wife Harriot.

They instilled in young William a love of reading and gave him some of his first books – John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress and John Gay's Fables.

Cowper was first enrolled in Westminster School in April 1742 after moving from school to school for a number of years.

He had begun to study Latin at a young age, and was an eager scholar of Latin for the rest of his life.

Older children bullied Cowper through many of his younger years.

At Westminster School he studied under the headmaster John Nicoll.

At the time, Westminster School was popular amongst families belonging to England's Whig political party.

Many intelligent boys from families of a lower social status also attended, however.

Cowper made lifelong friends from Westminster.

He read through the Iliad and the Odyssey, which ignited his lifelong scholarship and love for Homer's epics.

He grew skilled at the interpretation and translation of Latin, an ability he put to use for the rest of his life.

He was skilled in the composition of Latin as well and wrote many verses of his own.

After education at Westminster School, Cowper was articled to Mr Chapman, solicitor, of Ely Place, Holborn, to be trained for a career in law.

During this time, he spent his leisure at the home of his uncle Bob Cowper, where he fell in love with his cousin Theodora, whom he wished to marry.

In 1763 he was offered a Clerkship of Journals in the House of Lords, but broke under the strain of the approaching examination; he experienced a worse period of depression and insanity.

At this time he tried three times to commit suicide and was sent to Nathaniel Cotton's asylum at St Albans for recovery.

His poem beginning "Hatred and vengeance, my eternal portions" (sometimes referred to as "Sapphics") was written in the aftermath of his suicide attempt.

After recovering, he settled at Huntingdon with a retired clergyman named Morley Unwin and his wife Mary.

He continued to suffer doubt about his salvation and, after a dream in 1773, believed that he was doomed to eternal damnation.

He recovered, and went on to write more religious hymns.

His religious sentiment and association with John Newton (who wrote the hymn "Amazing Grace") led to much of the poetry for which he is best remembered, and to the series of Olney Hymns.

His poem "Light Shining out of Darkness" gave English the phrase: "God moves in a mysterious way/ His wonders to perform."

He also wrote a number of anti-slavery poems, and his friendship with Newton, who was an avid anti-slavery campaigner, resulted in Cowper's being asked to write in support of the Abolitionist campaign.

He also wrote several other less well-known poems on slavery in the 1780s, many of which attacked the idea that slavery was economically viable.

Cowper was born in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, where his father John Cowper was rector of the Church of St Peter.

His father's sister was the poet Judith Madan.

His mother was Ann née Donne.

He and his brother John were the only two of seven children to live past infancy.

Cowper wrote a poem called "The Negro's Complaint" (1788) which rapidly became very famous, and was often quoted by Martin Luther King Jr. during the 20th-century civil rights movement.

But as James Croft, who in 1825 first published the poems Cowper addressed to Theodora, wrote, "her father, from an idea that the union of persons so nearly related was improper, refused to accede to the wishes of his daughter and nephew."

This refusal left Cowper distraught.

He had his first severe attack of depression/mental illness, referred to at the time as melancholy.

One of the most popular poets of his time, Cowper changed the direction of 18th-century nature poetry by writing of everyday life and scenes of the English countryside.

In many ways, he was one of the forerunners of Romantic poetry.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge called him "the best modern poet", whilst William Wordsworth particularly admired his poem "Yardley-Oak".

After being institutionalised for insanity, Cowper found refuge in a fervent evangelical Christianity.