 | The Newton-Cowper Centenary, 1907 |  |
Verses for the Newton-Cowper Centenary. 1907.
1
COWPER, methinks, thy gentle nameWill longer yet than many shine
That fairlier on the roll of fame
Are writ than thine.
Thy homely measures kiss the ear
Kindlier than many more sublime,
As, in the woods of Winter-time,
The robin's flute
More dear
Is oft, and in the memory long
Lingers, when many a shriller song
Is mute.
2
Another name with thine shall dure,Thine, NEWTON, whose capacious heart
Fair friendship's use Life's ills to cure
Raised to an art.
The memory of thy healing gift
The spirit's wounds to salve and half
Shall Time embalm
And lift
To heaven friend's and poet's name,
Two voices joining in one same
Clear psalm.
3
One thing, beside thy gracious word,COWPER, my heart to thee doth draw,
Whereto the love of beast and bird
Is as Heav'n's law.
My creed, for which all things that be
One same soul quickens, beast and man,
Still for Creation's humbler clan
Thy kindness shares;
With thee,
I scorn the “sport” that baits the brute,
And through the years my cats salute
Thy hares.
4
Thy life was covered with a cloud,Whose shadow, well nigh from thy birth,
Oppressed thee and too often bowed
Thy head to earth;
Lest thou in heaven shouldst have no place
And sole of all be from God's grace,
Beneath the sun,
Outcast;
A fear lest hope for thee, poor wight!
Of finding favour in His sight
Were none.
5
Nay, tremble not, sad soul! Who hereHath led, whilst yet the earth he trod,
So innocent a life, need fear
No jealous God;
And to believe, indeed, 'twere hard
That in Our Father's house, in which
To find for thee,
Sweet bard,
Kind chronicler of common things,
Whose gentle verse to memory clings,
Might be.
Two out of the six books of The Task relate to “The Woods of Wintcr-time” namely
- The Winter Morning Walk Task Book V.
- The Winter Walk at noon Task Book VI.
This fine ‘old English’ word, which means ‘to do away, to destroy,’ perfectly expresses the result of Newton's affection for Cowper, and especially his care of him during the terrible 14 months spent by the poet at Olney Vicarage. Newton's friendship did “salve and half fordo” the wounds of Cowper's spirit.
A Cenotaph (it is an impertinence to observe) is a monument of one buried elsewhere. Cowper lies at East Dereham; his cenotaph is the Cowper Museum, established by the munificence of Mr. W. H. Collingridge, at Olney.
I undertook the care of three [hares] ...... Puss, Tiny and Bess...... I built them houses to Sleep in...... Puss grew presently familiar...... He was ill three days, during which time I nursed him ...... No creature could be more grateful than my patient after his recovery; a sentiment which he most significantly expressed by licking my hand. first the back of it, then the palm, then every finger separately, then between all the fingers, as if anxious to leave no part of it unsaluted.
Gentleman's Magazine. June 1784. Tuesday, March 9, 1786.This day died poor Puss, aged eleven years, eleven months. He died between twelve and one at noon, of mere old age, and apparently without pain.
John Payne. 1902.“Gruff, Top, Shireen and Rover.”
Vere Novo: Definitive Ed. of his Poems Vol. 2, p. 318.Since the writing (in March last) of this poem, my little Angora cat “Rover” has died in her tenth year. She was the most loving and engaging of little creatures, far more intelligent than the majority of human beings, and was less to be described as a cat than as half-a-dozen pounds of affection and devotion done up in tabby fluff. Peace to her gentle memory! As Burton says, in the delightful ‘We and our Neighbours’ [By Mrs. H. B. Stowe] “One's pets will die, and it breaks one's heart.”
Notes to Definitive Edition of his Poems. | The Newton-Cowper Centenary, 1907 | |