The Poetical Works of William Cowper

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1854 Excerpt: ... BOOK IY.-THE WINTER EVENING. THE ARGUMENT. The post comes in, 1--The newspaper is read, 36--The world contemplated at a distance, 88--Address to Winter, 120--The rural amusements of a winter evening compared with the fashionable ones, 193--Address to Evening, 243--A brown study, 267--Fall of snow in the evening, 302--The waggoner, 330--A poor family piece, 374--The rural thief, 429--Public houses, 466--The multitude of them censured, 500--The farmer's daughter, what she was, 513--What she is, 534--The simplicity of country manners almost lost, 553--Causes of the change, 576--Desertion of the country by the rich, 587--Neglect of magistrates, 593--The militia principally in fault, 613--The new recruit and his transformation, 623--Reflection on bodies corporate, 659--The love of rural objects natural to all, and never to be totally extinguished, 691. Hark! 'tis the twanging horn! o'er yonder bridge, That with its wearisome but needful length Bestrides the wintry flood, in which the moon Sees her unwrinkled face reflected bright;--He comes, the herald of a noisy world, With spatter'd boots, strapp'd waist, and frozen locks; News from all nations lumbering at his back. True to his charge, the close-pack'd load behind, Yet careless what he brings, his one concern Is to conduct it to the destined inn, 10 And, having dropp'd the expected bag, pass on. He whistles as he goes, light-hearted wretch, Cold and yet cheerful: messenger of grief Perhaps to thousands, and of joy to some; To him indifferent whether grief or joy. Houses in ashes, and the fall of stocks, Births, deaths, and marriages, epistles wet With tears, that trickled down the writer's cheeka is Fast as the periods from his fluent quill, Or charged with amorous sighs of absent swains, Or nymphs responsive...