William Cowper on Poetry
1731–1800 England
← All quotes by William Cowper
7 quotes
There is a pleasure in poetic pains
Which only poets know.
And spare the poet for his subject's sake.
They best can judge a poet's worth,
Who oft themselves have known
The pangs of a poetic birth
By labours of their own.
Greece, sound thy Homer's, Rome thy Virgil's name,
But England's Milton equals both in fame.
But he (his musical finesse was such,
So nice his ear, so delicate his touch)
Made poetry a mere mechanic art,
And ev'ry warbler has his tune by heart.
Table Talk (1782)
Made poetry a mere mechanic art.
Ages elapsed ere Homer's lamp appeared,
And ages ere the Mantuan Swan was heard;
To carry nature lengths unknown before,
To give a Milton birth, asked ages more.