Cowper's Concept of Truth

Abstract

Cowper's Concept of Truth JOHN D. BAIRD William Cowper’s poetical activity extended over half a century, from “Verses written at Bath on finding the heel of a shoe,” composed in 1748 when he was sixteen, to a scrap of translation from Homer written a few months before his death on April 25, 1800. His contem­ porary fame, and his present reputation, rest upon the two volumes he published in his early fifties: Poems by William Cowper, of the Inner Temple, Esq., published in 1782, and his masterpiece, The Task, pub­ lished in 1785. While a knowledge of Cowper’s concept of truth— more strictly, religious truth—is necessary to a full understanding of all his mature poetry, its importance is most obvious in connection with the first two poems of what may be called Cowper’s “major phase,” namely, “The Progress of Error” and “Truth,” both of which were included in Poems, 1782. As an example of the misunderstanding to which they are liable, one may quote Canon Benham, who, in the introduction to his edition of the poems, objects that “The Progress of Error” is a misnomer; we are led, he says, “to expect a philosophical disquisition, whereas we find that the sum of this poem is that operas, card-playing, intemperance, gluttony, reading of bad novels, are the causes of Error; that they who hate truth shall be the dupe of lies. Quite true, of course; but who supposes that this is an adequate ac­ count of the progress of Error?”1 Well, presumably Cowper did, for 367 368 / J OH N D . BAIRD one. Consideration of the circumstances in which the poem came to be written may help us to understand why. In 1763 Cowper suffered a complete nervous breakdown (signalized by an unsuccessful suicide attempt), and left London for ever. In the course of his recovery, under the influence of his physician, Dr. Cot­ ton of St. Albans, he became a convinced Evangelical Christian. Nine years later, in 1773, he suffered a yet more drastic collapse. At the height of the seizure he had a dream which haunted him for the rest of his life. Henceforth he believed that God had condemned his soul not to eternal punishment but to annihilation immediately after the physical death of his body; further, that it was God’s wish that he should make away with himself at the first opportunity. This grim conviction weighed upon Cowper’s mind every minute of every day. He could obtain relief only by occupying himself with some activity. First his famous pet hares, then gardening, then drawing provided this necessary diversion. Then in 1778 and 1779 he began to write verse again. These little poems are neither gentlemanly love lyrics such as he had written as a young man-about-town in the 1750s, nor are they hymns such as he had composed in the enthusiastic aftermath of his conversion. Instead, they fall for the most part into two groups: moral fables like “The Pine-Apple and the Bee” (always a favourite form with Cowper), or topical poems inspired by the course of the American War. These are loudly patriotic, contemptuous of the Americans and violent against the French. Most of them were not published during his lifetime—he had to suppress two during the prep­ aration of the 1782 volume when it became clear that their confidence had been misplaced—and two were so strident and abusive that they did not appear in print until 1959.2 By the spring of 1780, the writing of verse was providing more and more of Cowper’s daily “amusement.” In May or early June he started to collect his little poems in a manuscript book, and included poems and translations more frequently in letters to his close friends. At the same time, as luck would have it, a new topic of public interest arose to attract his attention. This was a book called Thelyphthora or, A Treatise on Female Ruin . . . Considered on the Basis of the Divine Law. 3 It was written by a Cowper's Concept of Truth I 369 leading Evangelical clergyman, Martin Madan, who happened to be Cowper’s cousin...